Apple and Epic met over Zoom in a digital version of court Monday, following nearly two weeks of public squabbling over an increasingly dramatic legal battle between the companies over payments and power in the App Store. Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, who oversaw the hearing with a virtual backdrop of a courtroom, was deciding whether to …
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Apple‘s argument with Epic Games, the company behind the popular battle title Fortnite, goes back to June, the tech giant said in a Friday filing. And it started with Epic asking for a deal to offer a competing app store and payment system, separate from Apple’s, on iPhones. Apple said it received an email from Epic CEO Tim Sweeney on June 30, …
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The White House has asked the Supreme Court to review a decision by a lower court not to allow President Donald Trump to block people on Twitter. The petition, filed with the Supreme Court on Thursday, came after a federal court ruled in July 2019 that the president cannot block people who criticize him on a public forum. But the …
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Ever since Apple banned Fortnite battle royale from its App Store, you can’t play the game on an iPhone or iPad if you didn’t download it previously. Unless, that is, you buy someone else’s phone that has it installed — for, say, a cool 5,000 smackers. “Please help me get rid of Fortnite!!!!!!” Lorena Nacari wrote with a joking wink on …
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Apple and Epic’s legal battle dramatically escalated over the weekend. What began as an argument over Epic Games wanting to charge players directly for in-game items for its hit game Fortnite, instead of using Apple’s payment system and the up to 30% commission it charges, has turned into a battle that threatens to upend game development across the industry. After …
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Sen. Josh Hawley introduced a bill Wednesday that would allow people to sue tech companies for “selectively censoring political speech.” Online platforms would have to update their terms of service to include a commitment to act in good faith, and could be fined $5,000 if they break that promise. The bill also prevents online platforms from hiding content from competitors. …
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Yelp is adding a new tool that allows businesses on the platform to self-identify as black-owned. The new feature aims to make it easier for users to find and support black-owned businesses amid the calls for racial equality in the US. Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelman said in a blog post Thursday that the new tool follows an increase in user …
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The criminal trial against Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou will go ahead, a Canadian court ruled Wednesday. The court decided the case meets the double criminality requirement for being charged in both Canada and the US, meaning the extradition process to the US can proceed. “Huawei is disappointed in the ruling today by the Supreme Court of British Columbia,” the Chinese …
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Amazon is pushing back against an allegedly widespread tech support scam that the company says targeted its Alexa and Echo device customers through phony Alexa apps and websites. In a civil lawsuit Amazon filed in federal court in Seattle last week, the company said an international ring in Washington state and India developed a scheme to draw in people looking …
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Two senators are seeking an antitrust review into Google’s search practices. Google’s digital advertising practices are already the subject of an antitrust probe by 50 attorneys general, and Sens. Josh Hawley and Richard Blumenthal want this extended to search. Google has dominance in advertising because of “its enormous search engine market share,” their letter to Attorney General William Barr says, …
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