The filing places Microsoft, federal officials, and state officials on Epic's side as the dispute moves through appeal; later Ninth Circuit proceedings gave the DOJ and California time to address the applicable antitrust frameworks in the resumed appeals fight.
First-order effects
Epic gains appellate support from Microsoft, 35 states led by Utah, and the Biden Administration, while Apple must answer a more institutionally diverse set of arguments at the Ninth Circuit.
Microsoft formally aligns its platform interests with Epic's challenge to Apple's App Store rules rather than remaining only an affected developer-platform operator.
Second-order effects
The government participation elevates the appeal from a bilateral dispute into a test of antitrust interpretation, giving other developers and platform operators a clearer legal vehicle for contesting App Store restrictions.
Apple's developer-policy decisions face greater scrutiny from parties arguing that access to its platform affects the wider developer ecosystem, the concern raised in Epic's earlier developer-tools warning.
Third-order effects
If courts give weight to the coalition's antitrust framing, app-store governance is more likely to be shaped by judicial standards and government enforcement positions rather than platform rules alone.
The trend: Mobile app-store control is becoming a sustained antitrust battleground in which developers, rival platforms, and public authorities increasingly coordinate against a single gatekeeper's rules.
Also the DOJ and a whole bunch of extremely prominent antitrust law professors. But the fact that Microsoft filed a brief *in support of antitrust restrictions on another tech company* feels historically significant in a way none of those other ones are. https://twitter.com/...
“The district court committed several legal errors that could imperil effective antitrust enforcement, especially in the digital economy,” according to the filing. https://twitter.com/...
@Apple allies will file their briefs at a later date. Volume of submissions - and their tone - goes to show how crucial this #antitrust case is seen to be, and how polarising it is.
“It will probably be easy to see for the Ninth Circuit that those who support Epic do so because it's the right and necessary thing to do, while those who will support Apple are just going to have reasons to do Apple a favor.” https://www.fosspatents.com/ ... https://twitter.com/…
#EpicvApple story is heating up today Deadline for briefs in support of @EpicNewsroom's appeal of its court loss. And it's a fair haul, with 7 hours left for more filings (looking at you, state AGs) 50+ academics, @ConsumerFed, @Public_Citizen, plus @appfairness members.
“Epic's appeal is very much alive.” “[Apple] won't be able to counterbalance the support Epic received from 35 states, Microsoft, the EFF, and America's most cited and most authoritative antitrust law professor.” 👏 https://www.fosspatents.com/ ...
Apple made $123B last quarter. All over the world governments are realizing they're doing this by obscenely taxing and constraining innovation on the App Store. Microsoft at its greediest, “cut off their air supply” days had nothing on Apple today. https://www.bloomberg.com/...
Now, at last, US state attorneys-general have filed their support. Remember they are suing @Google on similar grounds, so they have an interest in overturning the @Apple judgment. https://twitter.com/...