Apple may win a court battle but lose a regulatory war

IS APPLE’S ONLINE store for smartphone apps akin to a private club, where the firm can set the rules no matter what, even if this means it can exclude people it does not like and overcharge the rest? Or is the app store more like a town market square, meaning among other things that any firm is allowed to do business there?The devilish details of antitrust law aside, this is the main question before a judge in California in a . It will be a battle royal between Epic Games, the maker of Fortnite, a popular online video game, and Apple, the world’s most valuable technology company. Epic accuses the tech giant of having abused its dominance when it after Epic attempted to offer a separate payment system. Apple counters that the games firm is just trying to avoid paying its commission rate of up to 30% and free ride on the tech giant’s inventions.