It's being reported on this afternoon that Apple provided in-depth detail on how many apps it rejected last year and why its iPhone payment system keeps customers secure, seeking to deflect claims from Epic Games Inc. that its review process and purchase system is a deterrent to competition.

The Cupertino, California-based technology giant on Tuesday said in a statement that it prevented more than $1.5 billion in “potentially fraudulent transactions” last year, underscoring the need for its proprietary payment system at the heart of the on-going antitrust trial with Epic.

Over the course of litigation brought by Epic, the game maker has claimed that Apple uses its payment system, which takes a 15% to 30% cut of transactions, and app approval process to juice profits and hurt developers.

The iPhone maker provided several new statistics about its app review process and payment system to back up its defense that those measures are in place to protect consumers:

•     In total, almost 1 million new apps and nearly 1 million more app updates were rejected or removed from the App Store in 2020
•     48,000 apps were turned down in 2020 for having hidden features, while more than 150,000 apps were refused for being misleading or manipulating users into buying items
•     In 2020, 95,000 apps were removed for engaging in a practice dubbed “bait-and-switch,” where a developer remotely alters the app after it’s approved to add banned features
•     Since 2020, 1 billion starred ratings and 100 million reviews were processed
•     470,000 developer accounts were terminated last year and 205,000 developer enrollments were rejected, barring those users from submitting an app to the store.
•     In 2020 alone, 244 million user accounts were deactivated due to fraud, while 424 million account sign-ups were rejected because they displayed patterns consistent with fraudulent and abusive activity

Apple said its app review team “is an essential line of defense” and can protect users from apps that would facilitate the purchase of drugs, predatory loans, gambling and pornography.

The company blocked 110,000 apps found on pirate app stores that circumvented its App Store over the last year and blocked 3.2 million apps distributed through its enterprise program in the last month. For more on this, read the full Bloomberg report on BNN Bloomberg.