Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
- Apple's Tim Cook, and Epic Games' Tim Sweeney, will testify in the Fortnite case.
- It marks the latest in a series of lawsuits Epic Games has filed against Apple.
- The court case is tentatively scheduled to start on May 3.
- See more stories on Insider's business page.
Apple Inc and Epic Games have called their chief executive officers to testify as part of the upcoming "Fortnite" App Store trial, court documents show.
Apple's CEO, Tim Cook, SVP Craig Federighi, and former marketing chief and present App Store vice-president, Matt Fischer are on the list of tentative witnesses to testify live and face-to-face in the courtroom, among others.
Epic Games submitted its founder and CEO Tim Sweeney, its store manager, Steve Allison, and Thomas Ko, chief of online business strategy, as its witnesses for the trial.
"The chorus of developers speaking out against Apple and their anticompetitive practices has become louder," Epic Games said, according to Reuters.
Apple responded in a statement to Bloomberg, saying they feel "confident the case will prove that Epic purposefully breached its agreement solely to increase its revenues."
The fight began after Epic Games circumvented rules Apple and Google have in place over in-app payments made through their App Stores. Developers are obliged to pay Apple and Google a 30% commission on any payments that are made inside their apps. Epic Games claimed this was anti-competitive.
Epic Games then implemented its own payment system inside "Fortnite," which led to it being kicked off Apple's App Store and the Google Play Store, as Insider previously reported.
The Apple court case is provisionally due to start on May 3, with Cook due to give a 7-hour deposition.
Apple says its top executives "look forward to sharing with the court the very positive impact "the App Store has had on innovation, economies across the world and the customer experience over the last 12 years," as reported by The Verge.