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Apple on Friday reinstated permission for Fortnite maker Epic Games to offer its app store to iPhone customers in Europe. It comes a day after European Union regulators suggested the company’s brazen move to block Epic may violate new sweeping antitrust laws.
Apple faces intense scrutiny under the European Union’s Digital Markets Act. The law went into effect this week and imposed restrictions on six “gatekeeper” Big Tech companies. The law requires Apple to allow developers to run their own app stores, but Epic responded to his CEO Tim Sweeney’s public criticism of its harsh business strategy. He was trying to accomplish this until Apple suspended his account.
Epic Games, which has been engaged in a long legal battle with Apple over App Store policies, has announced that it will move forward with its plans to offer Fortnite and the Epic Games Store.
“This sends a strong signal to developers that the European Commission will act quickly to enforce digital market law and hold gatekeepers accountable,” Epic Games said in a statement.
Elsewhere, Sweeney, who previously called Apple’s proposed compliance plan “hot garbage,” called the company’s decision “a huge victory for the rule of law in Europe, the European Commission and developer freedoms around the world.” ” he praised. Speak up. “
The sudden change of heart came a day after the European Commission, the EU’s competition authority, announced that it had requested further clarification from Apple on this matter under the DMA. EU competition chief Margrethe Vestager quipped that gamers “will be able to play @FortniteGame when they return to iOS” with a winking face emoji.
“After discussions with Epic, Epic has committed to following the rules, including our DMA policy,” Apple said in a statement. “As a result, Epic Wednesday AB has been permitted to re-sign the developer agreement and be admitted to the Apple Developer Program.”
Epic initially described Apple’s move to terminate developer accounts in Europe as a “serious violation” of the DMA. The North Carolina-based video game giant released a letter from Apple’s App Store head Phil Schiller condemning Epic for publicly bashing its tactics.
“Your various criticisms of our DMA compliance plan, combined with Epic’s past practice of intentionally violating contractual terms to which it disagrees, demonstrate that Epic Sweden has no intention of playing by the rules,” Schiller wrote in the letter. It strongly suggests that.”
Schiller asked Epic to provide “written assurances” that the company is acting in “integrity” and to explain “why we should trust Epic at this time.”
Meanwhile, Apple said in a previous statement that court rulings confirmed that it has “sole discretion” to terminate contracts with developers if they are found to have violated the terms of the agreement.
The altercation was the latest development in a long-running feud between the giants that began in 2020, when Fortnite was banned from Apple’s App Store in the US after Epic tried to circumvent its system of in-app purchases. . Subsequent lawsuits resulted in divided verdicts, mostly in favor of Apple.
The European Commission has taken a tough stance against Apple on antitrust issues.
Earlier this month, Apple was fined a hefty $2 billion after investigators found that it illegally restricted music app developers from advertising cheap ways to subscribe to streaming services outside of the App Store. did.
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