• Source:JND
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Epic Games, a popular game developer, has announced that it will create a dedicated game shop for iOS and Android this year. This comes after the European Union's Digital Markets Act cleared the way for Epic Games to launch their shop and challenge the dominance of the App Shop and Play Store.

“We’re coming to iOS and Android! Same fair terms, available to all developers, on a true multi-platform store – with amazing games for everyone,” the company said in a post.

In the meantime, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, Elon Musk's X, and Match Group joined Fortnite video game maker Epic Games in a petition against Apple's failure to comply with a court-ordered injunction restricting payments in its App Store. The tech businesses claimed that by making it impossible for users to find less expensive ways to pay for digital content, Apple was in "clear violation" of the September 2021 decision. These companies developed some of the most popular apps in the App Store.

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The allegation was filed with a federal court in Oakland, California. It cited its declaration from January 16th stating that it had cooperated with the injunction in full and that it would safeguard "the integrity of Apple's ecosystem" and consumers.

In 2020, Epic filed a lawsuit against Apple, claiming that the company's requirement that users download apps through the App Store and its up to 30% commission for developers' sales were antitrust violations. Apple was forced by the injunction to permit developers to include buttons and links that would take users to different payment methods.

Epic said last week that the links were essentially worthless due to new regulations and a new 27% developer charge, and they demanded that Apple be held in contempt.

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The tech businesses filed a document on Wednesday claiming that Apple's actions hurt developers and customers while "for all intents and purposes" entrenching anti-steering laws that the court ruled to be unlawful.

"Apple's restrictions on where and how developers can communicate with their users about their options for purchasing in-app content create significant barriers to competition and artificially inflate prices," the application stated.

Apple appealed the order, but the US Supreme Court declined to hear the case in January. Additionally, the court declined to consider Epic's appeal of a lower court's ruling that Apple's practices did not breach federal antitrust law. Apple's official response to Epic's lawsuit must be sent by April 3.

(With Agency Inputs)