Epic largely lost to Apple, but 35 states are now backing its fight in a higher court

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

It has some major support in its corner, and it has largely lost its major lawsuit against Apple, but it is not going out without a fight. A coalition of 35 state attorneys general, Microsoft, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation have all filed briefs in support of the battle between the two companies. The original ruling was put on hold after an appeals court granted a stay.

In order to force Apple to take a smaller percentage of transactions that go through the App Store, Epic was trying to make the case that Apple has a monopoly in mobile gaming. It could change how Apple operates its App Store if it were successful in getting Apple to accept alternate payment processors. In the original case, the judge ruled in favor of Apple in nine of ten counts, but both Apple and Epic appealed the parts that they lost.

Allowing the ruling to stand would upend established principles of antitrust law and undermine sound antitrust policy, according to the opening appeal brief filed last week.

More than half the states in the US, Microsoft, and many more groups are siding with the company that lost the case.

The states said in their brief that Apple's conduct has harmed and is harming mobile app developers and millions of citizens. Under a complete rule of reason analysis, Apple must account for its conduct.

Microsoft said that a broad ruling for Apple could leave little room for a limiting principle to prevent Apple from using its control of iOS to foreclose competition in countless adjacent markets. The stakes are high for Microsoft and other businesses that depend on antitrust laws to protect competition on the merits.

A review of the district court's factual findings will show that Apple has market power in app distribution, and that its proffered justifications for its restrictive App Store policies do not outweigh the anticompetitive effects of those policies. This result will allow innovation to flourish outside of Apple's walls, while allowing Apple to continue to innovate for the benefit of its users.

Here are the organizations that have filed briefs. We uploaded all of their briefs to DocumentCloud so you can read them yourself.

The United States did not support either party in its brief.