Apple wins a court battle with Epic Games—sort of

“CALIFORNIA HAS always been a place for people with big ambitions and big dreams…We are proud to call California our home.” It is unclear why Tim Cook, Apple’s boss, prefaced the launch of the iPhone 13 on September 14th with a serenade to the Golden State. It was certainly not a reaction to the ruling handed down days earlier by federal judge there, Yvonne González Rogers. Her decision in a lawsuit brought against Apple by Epic Games, which owns “Fortnite”, a popular video game, will make Mr Cook’s life tougher.On a skim of the 185-page decision, Apple can claim to be the winner. Broadly speaking, Epic had accused the iPhone-maker of abusing a monopoly over its App Store by, among other things, forcing developers to use Apple’s in-app payment system and to pay excessive commissions of up to 30%. Not so, the judge argued. In her view, the relevant market is not the iPhone or the App Store, but “digital mobile gaming transactions”, where Apple competes with Google’s Android operating system. Although Apple controls more than half of this market, that does not amount to wrongdoing. “Success is not illegal,” Ms González Rogers wrote, adding that no evidence was presented to suggest that Apple erected barriers to entry or engaged in conduct decreasing output or innovation.