Today, Apple approved the operations of Epic Games’ app store in the European marketplace. Notably, the two companies have been engaged in a battle over Apple’s closed App Store ecosystem for a while now.
As reported by Wired, this came after the latter lashed out at Apple. Epic Games claimed that the company’s initial rejections were “arbitrary, obstructive, and in violation of the DMA (Digital Markets Act)”.
Epic Games has also stated that Apple rejected their app twice this week. It was also reported that Apple claimed that the store’s ‘Install’ button and ‘in-app purchases’ labels were too similar to their App Store.
With this, Epic Games threatened to report this to the European Commission. But since then, Apple seems to have relented to avoid further complications.
Since 2020, Epic has had issues with Apple’s practice of charging in-app payments (up to 30% commissions) on iOS-powered devices. The gaming firm alleged that this violated US antitrust rules.
Apple proposed changes to their App Store policies in compliance with the DMA requirements in March. Apple allowed alternative app stores in iPhones, but set a “core technology fee” that developers found exploitative.
