Microsoft claims that Apple’s App Store-related court battle with Epic Games interfered with the Redmond firm’s plans to launch the Xbox mobile web store.
According to an amicus brief supplied to the United States District Court for the Northern District of California on May 20, Microsoft claims its plans were impacted by the ongoing legal drama between Apple and Epic Games over an anti-steering injunction, reports The Verge.
The brief focuses on the injunction, which requires Apple to allow developers to link out to external marketplaces to handle payments. However, Apple’s implementation didn’t quite jibe with the intention of the court.
Apple mandated a 27% payment in place of its usual 30% cut of the action for in-app purchases through its App Store. This was deemed insufficient by the court, which then forced Apple to make additional changes that would be closer to the spitir of the order.
Microsoft says it had plans to open its own Xbox mobile web store in 2024, but that didn’t happen due to Apple’s rules.
The injunction allowed Apple to “maintain its in-app exclusivity,” the brief states, but it should’ve at least allowed other companies like Microsoft to offer things like an online store for in-app items, via a link out. “But even this solution has been stymied by Apple,” Microsoft asserts.
Microsoft believes that Apples initial changes blocked it from setting up external payment links or inform customers about the alternative payment methods. That imposed “an even higher economic cost to Microsoft than before the injunction,” insists Microsoft.
Microsoft insists to the court that the ruling be kept in place until the appeal.
