- Court documents show that Apple is trying to sue Valve in its fight with Epic Games.
- Valve has declined to provide certain information about its earnings and the games it hosts.
- Valve claims Apple is asking too much information as it is not a mobile platform.
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Apple’s fight with Epic Games is apparently dragging other video game companies into the net.
A joint court letter filed Thursday and noted by Ars Technica reveals that Apple has attempted to sue Valve, the company behind the hugely popular online game store Steam, for information.
Since August, Apple has been in a legal battle with Epic Games, the studio behind the wildly popular “Fortnite”. The battle revolves around Epic Games’ refusal to comply with Apple’s App Store rules for in-app payments in the iOS version of “Fortnite.”
Apple requires app developers to use their own payment system, which automatically levies a 30% tax on in-app purchases. Epic Games claims this is anti-competitive and decided in August to implement its own payment system, after which Apple kicked “Fortnite” out of the App Store.
Epic Games then took Apple to court, and the two companies have since battled it out – with Apple CEO Tim Cook slated to issue a seven-hour statement before the case goes to trial in May. Epic Games has maintained the pressure and filed an antitrust complaint with the EU this week.
Valve is not directly involved in the legal battle between the two companies. Apple said it is asking for documents detailing Valve’s annual sales and earnings, as well as information about every app on Steam, including pricing, as a way to understand the market in which Epic Games operates.
Apple complains in its letter that Valve has resisted complying with some of its requests for information, and that when it has transferred information, it has been heavily redacted.
Valve claims Apple is asking too much information as Valve is not involved in its fight with Epic Games and it is not a mobile platform. More broadly, Valve also claims that because it is a PC games distributor, the information it can provide is largely irrelevant to the battle between Apple and Epic Games.
“Valve does not make or sell phones, tablets or video games for mobile devices and does not compete in any other way in the mobile market,” the letter said. It added that Apple’s requests would place an “extraordinary burden” on Valve to collect all the data Apple wants.
“The extensive and highly confidential information that Apple is requesting about a subset of the PC games available on Steam does not reflect the size or parameters of the relevant market and would be hugely difficult to work together,” Valve said. his letter.
Apple argues that Valve should be forced to provide the information because Samsung has complied with similar requests. Valve’s counter-argument is that Samsung is a public company, so it’s used to keep track of that kind of information, which could be produced much faster and easier.
“Somehow, in a mobile app dispute, a PC game maker who doesn’t compete in the mobile market or sell ‘apps’ is portrayed as a key figure. It’s not,” Valve said.