The new judge in Fortnite broker Epic Games’ showdown with Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) over its App Store fees, Apple gave a big win seven years ago, in a case that addresses similar issues.
Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers – who took over the Epic-Apple case on Wednesday from another judge – dismissed a lawsuit in 2013 that claimed Apple’s apps monopoly cost consumers hundreds of millions of dollars in overcharges, Bloomberg reports.
That led last year to an unsuccessful attempt by that plaintiff to seek a new judge, saying Rogers was too hostile to her position.
Epic’s popular Fortnite Battle Royale game was removed from Apple’s App Store and Google’s (GOOG, GOOGL) Play Store after it introduced its own in-app payment system, which could include the stores’ fees. Epic (40% supported by Tencent (OTCPK: TCEHY)) answered by pursuing both companies.
The older case also referred to the 30% cut that Apple is taking, but Judge Rogers argued that the costs are not as directly charged to Apple as passed on to consumers by developers – and that consumers can not file for anti- trust violations over such passed- on charges.
