Epic Games accused Apple of suspending its developer account in the UK as they prepared to bring Epic Games Store and Fortnite back to iOS.
Epic Games published a blog post stating that Apple terminated its developer account for Sweden, which the company was planning to use to launch Fortnite and the Epic Games Store on the App Store in Europe. In mid-February, the company announced that Apple granted a developer account in the European region thanks to the European Digital Markets Act.
Epic Games announced in February that Fortnite will return to iOS in some European countries thanks to the Digital Markets Act passed in December 2022 by the European Union. Thanks to the act, it would allow Epic Games to publish Fortnite and other apps on Apple’s App Store. The bill is expected to go into effect in March 2024, but Apple decided to terminate Epic Games’ developer account.
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Apple Terminates Epic Games’ Developer Account
In the blog post, Epic Games stated that Apple had disabled the Epic Games Sweden AB developer account, citing the company’s past problems with the Fortnite creator and recent criticism of its policies.
We recently announced that Apple approved our Epic Games Sweden AB developer account. We intended to use that account to bring the Epic Games Store and Fortnite to iOS devices in Europe thanks to the Digital Markets Act (DMA). To our surprise, Apple has terminated that account and now we cannot develop the Epic Games Store for iOS. This is a serious violation of the DMA and shows Apple has no intention of allowing true competition on iOS devices.
The DMA requires Apple to allow third-party app stores, like the Epic Games Store. Article 6(4) of the DMA says: “The gatekeeper shall allow and technically enable the installation and effective use of third-party software applications or software application stores using, or interoperating with, its operating system and allow those software applications or software application stores to be accessed by means other than the relevant core platform services of that gatekeeper.”
In terminating Epic’s developer account, Apple is taking out one of the largest potential competitors to the Apple App Store. They are undermining our ability to be a viable competitor and they are showing other developers what happens when you try to compete with Apple or are critical of their unfair practices.
If Apple maintains its power to kick a third party marketplace off iOS at its sole discretion, no reasonable developer would be willing to utilize a third party app store, because they could be permanently separated from their audience at any time.
Apple said one of the reasons they terminated our developer account only a few weeks after approving it was because we publicly criticized their proposed DMA compliance plan. Apple cited this X post from this thread written by Tim Sweeney. Apple is retaliating against Epic for speaking out against Apple’s unfair and illegal practices, just as they’ve done to other developers time and time again.
Apple also claims that Epic is a threat to their ecosystem, but this is an entirely unjustified excuse to terminate one of our accounts. Apple has been a long-time public supporter of Unreal Engine. We also have had ongoing contractual relationships with Apple going back to 2010 for Epic’s games, Unreal Engine, and our other creator tools.
Epic Games on the Developer Account Ban
Apple and Epic Games have been involved in an antitrust legal battle since August 2020, when Epic decided to use a new direct payment option in Fortnite to get around Apple’s 30% platform fees. This action resulted in removing the game from the App Store and suspending Epic’s original developer account.
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