It seems that at least once a month, a new chapter appears in the Epic vs Apple saga , and the latest chapter sees Epic accusing Apple of imposing junk fees on third-party app stores, essentially killing competition. This case has been ongoing for years, with the most recent development prior to this report being Apple scoring a minor win in its appeal of the ruling in its case against Epic.
Initially, Epic won its case and Apple was ordered to change App Store policies in several key ways. Apple tried to get this ruling overturned, but was unsuccessful. Then, back in October, Apple was able to receive a new ruling in its appeals case with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, which actually reversed a tiny bit of the initial ruling. The main part of the case that hasn’t been overturned is that Apple was ordered to provide support for third-party app stores on iOS. Apple has complied with this order, but Epic says it’s doing so in a way that is still harming competition.
Epic says Apple is adding “competition-crushing” junk fees for third-party stores
This most recent development in Epic’s fight against Apple comes after the company recently complied with opening up iOS to third-party stores in Japan. According to Epic CEO Tim Sweeney, Apple is imposing fees that crush the competition . Specifically, Apple is charging a “21% junk fee” on in-app payments that are made in third-party apps. Additionally, Apple is charging 15 % for purchases that are made on the web.
Another one of the court’s conditions for Apple is that it had to allow linking to outside sources, where payments could then be made. These fees, Sweeney says, are “another travesty of obstruction and lawbreaking.”
Sweeney also stated that while these terms are in place, Fortnite can’t return to iOS in Japan. Fortnite was recently added back to iOS in the US earlier this year and it very recently made its return to the Play Store .
