EU Looks At US Epic Trial As Its Own Antitrust Probe Proceed

The European Union is watching the Apple versus Epic Games trial closely, said the head of the EU’s competition watchdog, but its own investigations will proceed regardless of the outcome, reported 9to5Mac.

European Commissioner for Competition Margrethe Vestager said that both of the EU’s antitrust investigations into Apple were progressing. The EU is deciding whether Apple’s running of the App Store is anti-competitive, and is separately investigating whether Apple Pay breaks European antitrust rules.

Vestager made her comments to Bloomberg: The investigation into Apple Pay is “quite advanced” and European regulators need to “do our own thing” regardless of what happens in the US suit against Epic Games, Margrethe Vestager said in an interview with Bloomberg News.

Apple CEO, Tim Cook, is slated to testify as soon as this week in the high-stakes trial with Epic Games, which could upend the multibillion-dollar marketplace for apps which run on mobile phones around the world

“We’re following that very closely,” because of the Epic complaint filed in the EU in February and the bloc’s digital rules that could require phones to allow a rival app store, which Apple does not allow, she said.

The European Commission is building a second antitrust probe into Apple Pay, after it last month escalated an investigation into how Apple requires app developers to use its in-app purchasing system.

“We would have to do our own thing no matter the outcome of the US casework,” she said, pointing to the differences between EU and US antitrust law and markets.