We’re nearing the start of the trial between Apple andEpic Games. As such, Apple has gone ahead and filed its expert witness testimony to the court.
The filing was first reported today byMacRumors. The bench trial between Apple and Epic is set to start on Monday, July 21, 2025. That means the companies need to get all of their ducks in a row ahead of the start date. Filing expert witness testimony is one of those ducks.
There is no set approval for the expert witness testimony filing at the time of publication. However, if the written statements are approved by the court, then they will be documented and serve as actual trial testimony. However, seeing them ahead of time does give us a look at how Apple plans, at least in part, to dispute Epic Games’ dispute with Apple in the legal matter.
As noted in the original report, Apple tapped several different professors that offer expertise in matters like law, antitrust, computer security, and other fields. One such professor is Lorin Hitt, who is at the University of Pennsylvania and teaches Operations, Information, and Decision. In defense of Apple’s App Store and the associated fees, Hitt argues that, as a game transaction platform, Apple is right in line with other services and platforms:
My market share calculations support the conclusion that Apple does not have market or monopoly power in a properly defined market. Apple’s share of the digital game transaction market lies between 23.3% and 37.5%. In light of my conservative approach, these market share estimates, especially at the high end, are likely to overstate Apple’s true market share and are, in any event, inconsistent with Apple having substantial market power. The entry of new game transaction platforms is also inconsistent with Apple having market power.
For what it’s worth, Applehas made the same argument.
Another entry is from UCLA Professor of Marketing Dominique Hanssens, arguing that Apple doesn’t have a monopoly in the gaming market because iPhone and iPad owners probably also have other devices to play games on. They reached that conclusion based on a survey they conducted:
Results of my first survey show that 92 percent of respondents who downloaded apps from the App Store had regularly used at least one other type of device (i.e., devices other than iPhones and iPads) with which they could access digital gaming content, in the last 12 months. Further, 99 percent of respondents in the first survey had regularly used or could have regularly used at least one other type of device (i.e., devices other than iPhones and iPads) with which they could access digital gaming content, in the last 12 months.
In an interesting move, all things considered, Apple is going to use the App Store’s “security” and review process as a way to drum up support for why the App Store itself is so important, especially for mobile users. Aviel Rubin is the technical director for the Johns Hopkins University Information Security Institute, and he argues that adding third-party app stores to iOS would “decrease iOS security”.
The introduction of third-party app stores for iOS would decrease iOS security, safety, and trustworthiness, as evidenced by the cases of Google and statistics indicating that third- party app stores host 99.9% of discovered mobile malware… Irrespective of whether they would be able to or intend to achieve the same security goals, the reality is that they could not. Moreover, there is no guarantee that all, or even most, third-party app stores would commit to upholding user security and privacy and intend to achieve such security goals, particularly if those standards come at the expense of efficiency and revenue.
There is no doubt whatsoever that Epic Games is going to argue that, despite Apple’s claims and promotion of the review process, there are still plenty of scam apps available in the App Store. And, Epic Games probably has an argument to make in this regard. Back in Marchwe reportedone such scam app, which ultimately stole one user’s entire life savings — and that was after the app was reviewed and approved.
And there have been more than a few similar apps discovered in the App Store since that report surfaced.
The full report is worth a read, even if it’s just a taste of what’s coming from Apple in regards to the legal battle with Epic Games. You can check out the timeline of events that brought us here just below.
