The two firms have been in a legal dispute since 2020, when the gaming company claimed that Apple’s practice of collecting up to 30% commissions on in-app payments on iPhone Operating System (iOS) devices violated US antitrust laws.
The latest assault from Epic comes as Apple grapples with concerns about sluggish demand for its iPhones in China, and its stock has down 12% this year, trailing its big tech peers in the US. Its stock remained basically unchanged on Wednesday.
Attempts by authorities and competitors like as Epic to open up rival marketplaces on Apple’s devices pose a significant threat to the Silicon Valley powerhouse’s profitability and control over its own ecosystem.
With the Digital Markets Act (DMA), which goes into effect this week, European politicians are putting pressure on Apple to enable those third-party marketplaces.
Separately, Brussels antitrust officials penalized Apple 1.84 billion euros ($2 billion) on Monday for stifling competition from music streaming rivals through App Store limitations, marking Apple’s first punishment for violating EU rules.
Epic was attempting to take advantage of the DMA, but Apple rejected such efforts on Wednesday, citing Epic’s previous breaches of contract in the ongoing legal fight.
Apple deleted a fresh developer account that Epic had set up in Sweden. Epic built the account in an attempt to bring Fornite and other games back to iPhones in Europe by running its own game store on Apple devices. The new European law requires Apple to allow third-party stores on its devices.
Developer accounts are vital because software producers cannot deploy programs to iPhones and iPads without them. Apple had already deleted some of Epic’s developer accounts in 2020, when Epic purposefully violated Apple’s in-app payment restrictions, and used the violation and subsequent banishment from the App Store as the foundation of a public relations and legal campaign against Apple.
Apple stated on Wednesday that court rulings have made it clear that it has “sole discretion” to terminate any Epic Games developer account for “egregious” violations of the company’s developer agreements.
“In light of Epic’s past and ongoing behavior, Apple chose to exercise that right to terminate Epic Games’ account.”
Apple
Epic claimed that by deleting its account, Apple was removing one of the major potential competitors from the Apple App Store.
“This is a serious violation of the DMA and shows Apple has no intention of allowing true competition on iOS devices.”
Epic Games
The European Commission, the EU’s executive body, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Apple requested revisions in January to comply with some terms of the DMA, a legislation intended to make it easier for European users to switch between rival services. The deadline is March 7.
The business stated that it will allow alternative app stores on iPhones and an opt-out from the in-app payments system, but would impose a “core technology fee” of 50 euro cents per user account per year for developers that sign up for the new system.
