The Leadership Letter

Real correspondence from the people running real companies — and what it reveals about leadership.

How to Signal a Legal Fight Before You File One

When a business dispute stops being about money and starts being about principle, the other side's lawyers are no longer the audience — the public and the courts are.

It's a sad state of affairs that Apple's senior executives would hand Epic's sincere request off to Apple's legal team to respond with such a self-righteous and self-serving screed -- only lawyers could pretend that Apple is protecting consumers by denying choice in payments and stores to owners of iOS devices. However, I do thank you for the prompt response and clear answer to my two specific requests. If Apple someday chooses to return to its roots building open platforms in which consumers have freedom to install software from sources of their choosing, and developers can reach consumers and do business directly without intermediation, then Epic will once again be an ardent supporter of Apple. Until then, Epic is in a state of substantial disagreement with Apple's policy and practices, and we will continue to pursue this, as we have done in the past to address other injustices in our industry.

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Court Exhibit
Epic Games, Inc. v. Apple Inc.
4:20-cv-05640 (CAND), Doc. 74-6, filed 2020-09-15
July 17, 2020
Public domain
View the primary source →