The public showdown between the EU Commission and Apple has begun: iPhone users will be able to play Fortnite again as soon as the app is back, emphasized EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager on Thursday. The competition watchdog's tweet came just in time for the deadline on which new rules for gatekeepers like Apple apply in Europe.
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However, the return of Fortnite on iOS is currently technically impossible because Apple has just blocked the developer account of the game manufacturer Epic Games after critical statements by the Epic boss. Without an Apple Dev account, no software can be distributed on iPhones – not even via the new alternative app marketplaces that are now allowed to launch in Europe.
Apple is kicking out Epic Games Sweden again
A Swedish Epic subsidiary surprisingly received a new developer account from Apple in February. The Epic Games Store was supposed to come to iPhones as an alternative app store in Europe and also bring back Fortnite. Apple had just canceled this dev account.
Apple insisted to the media that the deletion of the Epic account had been approved by the court because Epic had already knowingly broken the developer contract with Apple once. The gaming company is “demonstrably untrustworthy,” according to a letter from Apple’s lawyers published by Epic Games. As a reason, reference was also made to the criticism of Apple publicly expressed by Epic boss Tim Sweeney.
EU Commission is examining
The EU Commission is examining whether Apple's actions violate the Digital Markets Act, the Digital Services Act and the P2B Regulation, the Commission announced on Thursday in a statement to the Reuters news agency. The P2B regulation sets new rules for platform operators towards their commercial users – in this case Apple's behavior towards developers who want to distribute apps on iOS.
In 2020, Epic unlocked an option in Fortnite that allowed users to purchase in-game currency directly from the provider – parallel to Apple's mandatory in-app purchase interface. The deliberate breach of the rules led directly to Fortnite being kicked out and a long legal battle in the USA, which Apple won on almost all points. Before the expulsion, Fortnite apparently had a turnover of billions on Apple devices alone – and Apple probably withheld around $300 million in commission from that.
(lbe)