The Digital Markets Act (DMA), a new set of EU regulations that forces Big Tech companies to open themselves to competition on their core platforms, went into effect on Thursday.
By Friday, the DMA had already resolved the latest conflict between Apple and Epic Games.
“The DMA went through its first major challenge with Apple banning Epic Games Sweden from competing with the App Store, and the DMA just had its first major victory,” Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney posted on X. “Following a swift inquiry by the European Commission, Apple notified the Commission and Epic that it would relent and restore our access to bring back Fortnite and launch Epic Games Store in Europe under the DMA law.”
This latest behind-the-scenes conflict between Apple and Epic Games was made public on Wednesday, so as Sweeney said, this is an incredible victory for the brand new DMA which is barely one day old as of publishing.
The result of this decision means that Fortnite will likely soon make its way back to iOS, which would mean that gamers in the EU can once again play the popular battle royale game on their iPhones for the first time since 2020.
A pause in the war between Apple and Epic Games
Fortnite developer Epic Games released a statement on Wednesday sharing that Apple had terminated the video game company’s previously-approved iOS developer account.
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This isn’t the first time the iPhone-maker and the Fortnite developer butted heads. In 2020, Apple booted Epic Games’ Fortnite from the App Store after the gaming company attempted to avoid paying Apple’s in-app purchase revenue share fees. Since then, Fortnite has been unavailable to play on iOS devices.
However, thanks to the DMA, Apple has been forced to comply with a number of new rules in the EU. The new law means Apple must allow “alternative marketplaces” to compete with its official App Store, allowing for app developers to release apps on iPhone without going through Apple’s distribution model.
Once Apple announced this new policy, Epic Games quickly shared its intent to bring Fortnite back to the iPhone in the EU. In order to do so, Epic Games opened a new developer account that’s to be used to create an Epic Games mobile app store in the EU under the new “alternative marketplace” rules.
Apple derailed those plans – at least temporarily – on Wednesday. According to Epic Games, Apple terminated its developer account, citing Fortnite’s history of violating Apple’s rules as well as the Epic Games’ outspoken criticism of Apple.
However, Apple is now officially operating under a new set of regulations in the EU as of Thursday. Epic Games filed a complaint to EU regulators and by Thursday the issue was already being investigated by the European Commission.
“Following conversations with Epic, they have committed to follow the rules, including our DMA policies,” Apple said in a statement. “As a result, Epic Sweden AB has been permitted to re-sign the developer agreement and [be] accepted into the Apple Developer Program.”
“Apple has told us and committed to the European Commission that they will reinstate our developer account,” Epic Games said in its own publicly posted press release. “We are moving forward as planned to launch the Epic Games Store and bring Fortnite back to iOS in Europe.”
Apple’s quick reversal is certainly an impressive early feat for the DMA. It’ll be interesting to see what else these new regulations will do even further out than one day after it’s officially been implemented.
