- Let me help you understand the details
of the Fortnite ban, and
Fortnite's lawsuit against Apple.
(upbeat music)
Hey creator, I'm Ian Corzine,
your social media lawyer.
Yesterday, Fortnite software
developer, Epic Games
sued Apple for maintaining
an illegal monopoly.
An illegal monopoly is when one company
corners the market on a
given product, or service,
and then they commit misconduct
to be able to maintain that
hold on the good, or service.
In Fortnite's lawsuit against Apple,
Fortnite says that Apple
maintains an illegal monopoly over
the iPhone app and iPhone
app payment systems.
They say this because in order
to develop for iPhone and iOS
as an app developer, you have to pay 30%
of anything that you recover
from your app to Apple.
Additionally, if you
have in-app purchases,
30% of those in-app purchases
have to go to Apple.
And the other thing is, if you
develop for iOS and iPhone,
then you have to
distribute your application
through the app store.
There is no other arrangement
that you can agree upon.
It is actually in the terms of
service between you and Apple
as an app developer,
that you must agree that
you release any of your apps
through the app store.
Fortnite says that the app store system
is an illegal monopoly because
that 30% fee is way too high,
and developers who want
to sell their product
to the one billion iPhone users
have to go through the app
store, there's no other recourse.
Fortnite says that the app
store system reduces innovation
because there are a lot
of developers out there
who would like to develop for the iPhone,
but they don't want to pay
the 30% fee, and as a result,
there are less and less apps
available for consumers.
So that deprives consumers
of something in the market
that would really benefit them.
Fortnite also says that
this kind of configuration
that Apple has increase consumer costs.
There is no competition that Apple allows
for app payment systems.
You can't bring in PayPal,
or another payment system,
but Epic Games has their
own payment system,
they can't use that
if they want to have their
Fortnite game on the app store.
And so, as a result, the
consumer has to pay that 30% fee,
which is passed down
by the app developers.
And there's no ability for
the consumer to pay less
'cause there's no competition.
And, finally, Fortnite says
that Apple is this middleman,
this needless middleman
between the consumers,
and the app developers,
and it's taking its cut,
but providing no value for that.
Ultimately, I believe that the allegations
of Fortnite's lawsuit against Apple
for maintaining an illegal
monopoly, they will fail.
And the reason for this is
I don't believe that Apple's
system falls within the legal
definition of a monopoly.
And why is that?
Because they haven't
totally cornered the market
on a given product or service.
It's not like the situation
back in the 1980s,
when AT&T was broken up.
Back then, basically,
if you wanted to have
telephone service in America,
you had to go through AT&T.
That was a given product, or service,
and in that case, it
was telephone service.
If you wanted to have it,
you had to go through AT&T,
and as a result AT&T was broken up.
In this situation it's totally different.
Apple does not sell access to
a given product, or service.
If you want a cell phone,
you don't have to go through Apple.
You can go through Android,
and Samsung, and Google.
All the different brands
can give you access to a cell phone.
Additionally, if you want
to have a mobile app,
or your mobile app game, or something,
you don't have to go through Apple.
There's a lot of different places
where you can get access to mobile apps.
So Apple has not entirely
cornered the market
on mobile apps, or mobile
phones for that matter.
And so, as a result, they
don't constitute a monopoly.
And with specific reference to Fortnite,
you have to remember
that Fortnite is a game.
It's not a mobile only app.
You can play it on a desktop.
You can play it on a video game console,
and Apple does not have control of this.
So as a result, they can't
possibly have a monopoly
over Fortnite, let alone
apps in their app store.
And I'm not a shill for Apple.
I mean, I don't want to pay the 30% fee
when I go to the app store.
However, I have to look
at this objectively.
And if you look at this objectively,
the fee is not totally unjustified.
Apple has told us they spend
lots of time and money,
making sure that the apps
that are in the app store
actually work and are not hackable.
So Apple at least has some
basis for charging that 30% fee.
And I don't see that it's unreasonable.
And when Fortnite makes their arguments
about app developers,
you have to also remember
that app developers are
not beholden to Apple.
There are a variety of contexts
that they can design and code for.
If they don't like Apple,
they don't like the 30% fee,
they don't have to do iOS apps.
They can do apps only for
Android, or video game consoles.
You want to know what I think?
I think that Fortnite's
lawsuit against Apple
is just a strategic negotiating tactic.
I think that they planned it all out.
If you look at the complaint
that they filed yesterday,
there is explicit
reference to August 13th,
and that is the day where
Fortnite tried to sneak in
their payment system into
the iOS app for Fortnite.
They planned it, they
knew what they were doing.
And I think what they really want to do
is I think they want
to negotiate that fee.
They want to go down from
30% to let's say 15%.
I think they know that in the future,
they're gonna be coming
out with more and more apps
related to Fortnite and maybe
not related to Fortnite.
And they want to make sure
that they make as much money as possible.
And as a result, they want
to negotiate that fee.
I will tell you this,
that there is precedent for
Apple negotiating their fee.
You may remember that when Apple
wanted Amazon Prime on its Apple TV,
they negotiated that
developer's fee, I think to 15%.
So there is some history
of Apple doing a little bit
of negotiations with their developer fees.
And I think that Fortnite
and Epic Games want that.
So I think this lawsuit
by Fortnite is a tactic.
It's not gonna see the
inside of a courtroom.
It's not gonna go before
a judge, or a jury.
It's gonna be settled out of court
for an amount negotiated
on that developer's fee.
I don't know what that will be.
There may be a confidentiality clause
that will prevent us from
ever knowing if there is,
but I do think Fortnite
is trying to get a seat
at the negotiating table with Apple,
which is difficult to do.
And they feel like this is
the best way to do that,
bring this lawsuit.
Again, it doesn't even seek
damages, no money damages.
They just want the judge to
force Apple to reduce its fees,
or somehow structure the transaction,
so that app developers can
have their own payment systems,
or use outside payment systems,
and not have to go through Apple's system.
Speaking of tactics,
have you seen President
Trump's recent tweet
in which he says he may
delay the U.S. election?
The question for you all is
can President Trump actually
delay the U.S. election?
If you want to find out the answer,
watch my video right there.
And as always, as you watch,
I'm gonna be at iancorzine.com
to answer any sodom, sodal (beeping)
I'm gonna be at iancorzine.com
to answer any social media
law questions you have.
