It may also be a legal argument, but it's very clearly a move to gain public sentiment to their side - it's being published broadly by the media, after all.
Epic is painting themselves as the underdogs being bullied by Apple - the multi-billion dollar contract-breaking underdog.
Is it though? If you create a set of rules for your sandbox and somebody comes along and wants to play in it but only if you change the rules and you say “no thanks”, that seems totally reasonable. Why should you have to negotiate?
Maybe this is one of the fundamental misunderstandings of these arguments: those who think this statement to be true and those who don’t. You bought the phone, you didn’t buy the ecosystem, buying a $500 phone doesn’t give you the right to dictate the multi-billion dollar business.
But it gives the vendor the right to tax you 30% on all future purchases related to that device, even if you disapprove of the job they're doing in stewarding the ecosystem? Despite that there are plenty of other vendors standing by that would be happy to steward it if given the opportunity?
> it's very clearly a move to gain public sentiment to their side
While they have certainly engaged in PR, I really don't see this motion as being motivated by PR in any way...
> the multi-billion dollar contract-breaking underdog.
This is assuming Apple wins. If Epic is right they didn't break any contract because the terms Apple is claiming they broke were in fact not legally binding in the first place, by virtue of being illegal.
Epic is painting themselves as the underdogs being bullied by Apple - the multi-billion dollar contract-breaking underdog.