Amber Neely
The US Department of Justice has requested to participate in the appeals hearing regarding Epic's case against Apple's App Store policies.
Apple and Epic Games are heading back to court in October, with each party appealing against aspects of the antitrust rulings of a previous lawsuit.
Now, officials from the U.S. Department of Justice are asking to take part in the oral arguments, according to court documents seen by Reuters.
"The United States believes that its participation at oral argument would be helpful to the court, especially in explaining how the errors (in antitrust law interpretation) could significantly harm antitrust enforcement beyond the specific context of this case," the Justice Department wrote in the filing.
Neither party opposed the move. Apple has stated that it wants the Justice Department's argument time to come out of Epic's time or be granted additional time.
While Apple won its case against Epic Games, the company objects to the ruling's "anti-steering" provisions.
Epic maintains that the judge had made too many legal mistakes in her ruling and is seeking a complete retrial.
AppleInsider Staff
Malcolm Owen
Oliver Haslam
Andrew O'Hara
Wesley Hilliard
William Gallagher
Christine McKee
45 Comments
Is that a thing now – the government “participating” or intervening in civil cases between two private parties? Merrick Garland has crossed the line. Such an abuse of power. If you hate Apple, sue them yourselves.
Did Epic sue Google too? Why not Epic
What says the US Justice Dept. is correct in their interpretation?
I have problems with this move.
I guess the government don’t like the privacy that the apple store hav to offer. If wasn’t for the apple store, people would have MORE OVER HEAD
It’s going to be interesting what the government is going to say. Their only real recourse is “steering” the interpretation of US antitrust law towards EU competition laws. The EU laws are sufficiently vague enough such that they can make a minority player run afoul of competition laws.