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Epic Drops Facebook’s Gaming Chief From Its Witness List Ahead Of Trial

Epic has dropped Facebook’s Gaming Chief from its list of witnesses in the Epic-Apple trial beginning early May. According to the court filings, the upcoming trial of Epic Games with Apple is over the issue of developer fees.

Vivek Sharma, Facebook’s Vice President, Gaming was one of the witnesses scheduled to testify on behalf of Epic Games during the trial starting early next month. However, Epic has decided to drop him from the list of testifiers this week.

The court filing does not mention why the chief was dropped from the list and the company too declined to comment on the same. However, it’s worth noting that Sharma had earlier criticized Apple over the in-app purchase fees.

Fortnite developer Epic had been bearing with Apple and Google’s policy for too long. Epic claimed that the 30% cut that each of the platforms take was too high. So in August last year, Epic couldn’t take it anymore and started allowing customers to purchase credit in the game without Apple or Google’s payment mechanisms. During this, it offered a 20% discount, which was against the Apple and Google developer rules. Consequently, Fortnite was removed from both Playstore and App store. Epic reportedly had fired its lawyers. A lawsuit was then filed, stating that Apple was breaching antitrust laws. The case is to be heard in May.

With the trial date almost close both the parties have submitted their fact findings in separate 300 page documents each. Both the companies seem to be taking the case very seriously with the big names in the industry expected to testify for Apple, while Epic founder and CEO himself will testify for Epic.

Earlier Apple had said that Epic did not give an advance notice or intimation that Sharma would be called as a witness. However, the magistrate judge did not take up that complaint and advised Apple to take the issue up with the federal district judge who is overseeing the case.

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Photo credits: estnn.com

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