Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) and Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) find themselves fighting different battles in the same legal war. Epic Games, developer of Fortnite, has filed two contemporaneous lawsuits against both companies. Both suits have an identical premise: neither Apple nor Google should get a cut of in-app purchases.
Both tech giants have made a similar move in the wake of the controversy: reduce the size of the fees they charge, at least for some developers. But such actions are unlikely to dissuade Epic Games or, for that matter, antitrust regulators around the globe.
For its part, Apple charges a 15% fee on in-app purchases if a developer earns less than $1 million in revenue. Google's policy differs; it charges 15% on the first $1 million earned, regardless of how much money a developer makes afterward.
Epic Games sees such moves on Google and Apple's part as cynical divide and conquer tactics, meant to pit the have-developers against the have-not developers.
"It's a self-serving gambit," tweeted Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney "The far majority of developers will get this new 15% rate and thus be less inclined to fight, but the far majority of *revenue* is in apps with the 30% rate. So Google and Apple can continue to inflate prices and fleece consumers with their app taxes."
To say Epic Games is militant on this issue would be a bit of an understatement. The company essentially martyred itself last year when it updated Fortnite to include Epic's proprietary system for taking payments in direct refinance of both Apple and Google's service terms.
Apple pulled Fortnite from the App Store almost immediately. Google waited a bit longer. But it didn't take long for both tech giants to find themselves in court with Epic. In both cases, Epic essentially makes the same argument: payment restrictions on both the Play and App Stores amount to a monopoly in violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act.
The suits contain the exact language on some matters, and allege that both companies erect "contractural or technological barriers "which "foreclose" consumers from using alternatives payment processing methods, according to The Verge.
It's a more straightforward case to make against Apple. iPhone users have no choice but to use the App Store and make in-app purchases through Apple. But it's a more challenging case to make against Google.
Right now, it's impossible to load Fortnite onto an iPhone. But Android users can simply side-load the app, effectively bypassing the Play Store. However, in its claim, Epic emphasizes those same "contractural and technological barriers."
In short, by Epic's logic, most consumers don't have the technical savvy to side-load apps, which means that Google's Play Store is the only game in town for most Android users.
Google's move is unlikely to get Epic to drop its claim against the company.
"Whether it's 15% or 30%, for apps obtained through the Google Play Store, developers are forced to use Google's in-app payment services," said a company representative, quoted by TechCrunch. "Android needs to be fully open to competition, with a genuinely level playing field among platform companies, app creators, and service providers. Competition in payment processing and app distribution is the only path to a fair app marketplace."