Apple Inc and Epic Games list their chief executive officers as witnesses over a legal battle

Apple Inc [AAPL] and Epic Games announced their decision to list their chief executive officers as potential witnesses in a case between the companies. The iPhone maker and the video game developer were fighting a case over the App Store payment system, court documents showed.

The legal battle between Apple and Epic Games, creator of the popular game Fortnite started last year when Epic Games tried to avoid a 30% App Store fee by launching its in-app payment system. This action from the game developer leads to Apple banning Fortnite from its store. 

Apple announced that in addition to CEO Tim Cook, software chief of Apple Craig Federighi, and App Store Vice President Matt Fischer on a tentative list of witnesses submitted to the U.S. District Court Northern District of California Oakland Division. A copy of the same list was also sent to Reuters. Whereas, Epic Games listed its founder and CEO Tim Sweeney, its game store manager Steve Allison, and Thomas Ko, head of online business strategy, among its witnesses for the trial. 

Epic Games said in a statement, “The chorus of developers speaking out against Apple and their anticompetitive practices have become louder.” Apple said in a statement, “we felt confident the case will prove that Epic purposefully breached its agreement solely to increase its revenues.”