This is a shocker (he said sarcastically): Startup accelerator (and Epic Games’ biggest investor) Y Combinator filed an amicus brief siding with Epic in the long-running antitrust case against Apple.
As noted by 9to5Mac here’s part of the info from the brief: From the perspective of Y Combinator, Apple’s 27% fee on out-of-app transactions and other anti-link-out measures were functionally identical to Apple’s original restraints and violated the express terms of the Injunction. The fee was not justified to compensate Apple for value it provides but was instead a naked tax on developers’ revenues and a penalty for linking-out. The sheer magnitude of revenues Apple sought to extract with its new Program would have made the difference between viable and infeasible business models for countless developers. If the district court had allowed Apple’s fees and other tactics to stand, they would have continued to chill investment in app-development startups and would have resulted concretely in fewer American businesses being created. Thankfully, the district court saw Apple’s violation of the Injunction for what it was and put an end to it.
There doesn’t seem to be an end to the battle anytime soon. Yesterday, it was reported that TechNet and the Association of Corporate Counsel had sided with Apple in its antirust battle with Epic Games.
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Article provided with permission from AppleWorld.Today