The Epic Games Store app has officially been out for a few days, having brought Fortnite back to the Europe region with the new app’s release in the EU. However, it wasn’t an easy battle to achieve this feat, with Epic Games having to go up against two titans of technology Google and Apple in their quest for the new store app. Epic has been engaged in a legal battle with Apple and Google since August of 2020. The Apple decision came out in September of 2021, but the Google decision was not decided until December of 2023. These both focused on their respective tech juggernaut’s control of their respective app store.
The Apple case focused on the cut that Apple takes of each App Store purchase, with Epic taking issue with the 30% cut and wishing to either circumvent the App Store payment or have Apple take lesser cut. On August 13, 2020 Epic implemented changes in Fortnite to direct players to pay for in-game purchases outside the app store. Apple launched a countersuit and pulled Fortnite from the App Store – Google did the same with the Play Store – hence its need to return.
The initial decision found Apple in favor on nine of ten counts, with Apple’s conduct in enforcing anti-steering restrictions being anticompetitive and ruled in Epic’s favor. This last ruling made it so Apple would be unable to prevent apps steering their users towards payment sites that were not Apple affiliated or the App Store, though Apple added special clauses within their policy change that CEO Tim Sweeny argued were in bad faith with the court orders. While the two attempted appeals from this trial were denied and all but the anti-steering charge dropped, the ensuing back and forth between the two companies eventually led to Epic Games’ commitment to their own app store. However, this is only half the story.
The Epic v. Google case focused on Google’s practices as a dominant tech giant to keep the Play Store a necessity. Contrasting the Apple case, the jury ruled in favor of Epic on all accounts, and Epic has since put forward its proposed remedies, which were first heard by a jury on August 14, 2024. These measures are similar but more extensive than the Apple case, pushing beyond just anti-steering.
Earlier this week, Epic released its app store in the EU for iOS and Android and brought Fortnite back to the store. In the wake of that opening, CEO Sweeney has commented on the losses that Epic has sustained in this feud, around one billion dollars in Fortnite revenue, but that he is happy for the win that Epic has had and hopes the decisions will lead to new freedoms for developers in the world of mobile gaming.