This past week, Apple's lawsuit against Epic took an unexpected turn when the Cupertino-based company claimed that the real Driver of Epic's antitrust lawsuit is Microsoft and not the creator of Fortnite.
Apple has even asked the judge to dismiss the testimony of a Microsoft witness, Xbox executive Lori Wright, stating that she has nothing to do with the case. From Bloomberg, they claim that Apple Microsoft is using Epic as a workhorse.
The iPhone maker made the allegations Wednesday night in a filing asking a judge to make an adverse credibility finding against Lori Wright, an Xbox executive who testified at trial on behalf of Epic. That would mean that the judge could ignore your testimony.
Apple had already asked for that decision, but has increased its accusations in the new presentation. "A reasonable observer might wonder if Epic is serving as a workhorse for Microsoft," Apple said. “Microsoft hid itself from the significant discovery in this litigation by failing to appear as a party or send a corporate representative to testify.
What Apple suggests is that Microsoft is using Epic to shield itself from public opinion, since he did not know what the consequences would be before the law and public opinion. Additionally, Microsoft has not shown internal communications with Epic at Apple's request.
From Apple they affirm that Epic has used in the trial both witnesses associated with Microsoft and its own, including Susan Athey from Stanford University, who has made a large number of consulting jobs for Microsoft.
If Steve Ballmer were behind Microsoft, it would not be unreasonable to think that in the possibility suggested by Apple. However, I doubt very much that Satya Nadella, current CEO of Microsoft, is capable of getting into such a mess even more so when she really has nothing to gain or lose.
Most likely, both Apple and Microsoft reached an agreement about the commission that Apple pockets through the App Store and Mac App Store as it did a few years ago with Amazon.
