After Epic lost the lawsuit against Apple, the two sides agreed to hold a "debate match" next month.

CTOnews.com, Sept. 17 (Xinhua)-- U.S. Justice Department officials have been asked to participate in an oral debate on an appeal by Fortnite developer Epic Games against Apple next month, according to court documents filed on Friday. Epic and Apple have no problem with this, but Apple wants regulators to spend their time arguing over the Epic case elsewhere or give extra time.

CTOnews.com learned that Epic sued Apple in 2020, alleging that the iPhone maker's app store rules violated antitrust law because they required developers to pay up to 30 per cent of the commission on internal purchases.

The case continues so far, and Apple has won, and the court now allows Apple's percentage to remain the same. Antitrust experts say the loss of Epic could cause the Justice Department to lose its legal access to pursue Apple's monopoly, which has been investigating Apple since 2019.

Epic was not satisfied with the verdict in the case and filed an appeal, and the two sides will argue orally in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on October 21, when Apple and Epic will each have 20 minutes to present their respective situations.

In January this year, the Ministry of Justice submitted a brief to intervene in the case. Antitrust officials said they did not support either side of the current dispute, but were concerned that the lower court's ruling misinterpreted the Sherman Act, the main basis of US antitrust law.

"the United States believes that its participation in oral arguments will help the courts, particularly in explaining how errors (in antitrust law interpretation) significantly damage antitrust enforcement outside the specific context of this case," the Justice Department wrote in the document. "