By Jaspreet Singh and Foo Yun Chee July 5, 2024, 1:51 PM PDT (Updated a day ago)
In this illustration, a smartphone displays the Epic Games logo in front of the Apple logo. (REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo)
July 5 (Reuters) – Apple (AAPL.O) announced on Friday that it has approved Epic Games’ marketplace app for iPhones and iPads in Europe. This approval follows a dispute where Epic Games accused Apple of obstructing its efforts to establish a games store on Apple devices.
Apple clarified that the recent issue was related to the Epic Sweden AB Marketplace and not the “Fortnite” app, which has already been approved.
Developers and antitrust regulators have long criticized Apple’s strict control over the iOS app ecosystem. Before Apple’s recent announcement, Epic Games stated that Apple had twice rejected its documents for launching the Epic Games Store due to the similarity in design of certain buttons and labels to those used by Apple’s App Store.
“We are using the same ‘Install’ and ‘In-app purchases’ naming conventions that are standard across popular app stores on multiple platforms, following standard conventions for buttons in iOS apps,” Epic Games explained in a series of posts on X (formerly Twitter). “Apple’s rejection is arbitrary, obstructive, and in violation of the Digital Markets Act (DMA), and we’ve shared our concerns with the European Commission.”
The European Commission, which began investigating Apple’s app validation checks and the feasibility of sideloading alternative app stores last month, declined to comment.
Epic and Apple have been engaged in a legal battle since 2020, when Epic alleged that Apple’s practice of charging up to 30% commissions on in-app payments violated U.S. antitrust laws.
Earlier this year, Apple proposed changes to its App Store policies to comply with certain directives of the DMA, which came into effect in March. These changes included allowing alternative app stores on iPhones and offering an opt-out from using Apple’s in-app payment system. However, Apple introduced a “core technology fee,” which many developers criticized as exploitative.
(This story has been refiled to correct garbled text in the headline.)
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Reporting by Yuvraj Malik, Aditya Soni, and Jaspreet Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur, Shounak Dasgupta, and David Gregorio
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