Fortnite maker Epic Video games publicly lashed out at Apple on Friday, after its newest proposal for a rival iOS App Retailer was rejected by the smartphone maker. The corporate stated on X that this rejection was triggered after Apple argued the design of Epic’s app retailer too carefully resembled its personal.
This determination follows Epic’s try and submit an iOS model of the Epic Video games Retailer final week, a transfer that may make it doable for iPhone and iPad customers to obtain video games onto their machine with out visiting Apple’s App Retailer.
“Apple’s rejection is arbitrary, obstructive, and in violation of the DMA [Digital Markets Act],” Epic stated on Friday in an announcement launched on X, including that the corporate had already shared its issues with the European Fee. Apple has rejected Epic’s Sport Retailer notarization submission—a course of the place apps are submitted to the corporate for assessment—twice prior to now week, Epic spokesperson Elka Seems advised WIRED.
The case is a part of a wider battle over who will get to regulate the apps obtainable to tons of of hundreds of thousands of individuals. In a blow to the U large, Apple has been compelled by the Digital Markets Act, new EU guidelines, to permit options to its personal model app retailer on European iPhones and iPads since March.
“Apple has rejected our Epic Games Store notarization submission twice now, claiming the design and position of Epic’s ‘Install’ button is too similar to Apple’s ‘Get’ button and that our ‘In-app purchases’ label is too similar to the App Store’s ‘In-App Purchases’ label,” the corporate stated.
Epic defined its naming conventions echoed Apple’s as a result of it was “trying to build a store that mobile users can easily understand.” Apple didn’t reply to WIRED’s request for remark.
There are greater than 100 million individuals who use Apple’s App Retailer within the EU. The launch of the Epic Video games Retailer would, for the primary time, give these customers a selection of the place they need to obtain apps.
That second is eagerly awaited by lawmakers who argue that the tech giants are repressing competitors by blocking rivals’ entry to their customers. “The launch of an alternative app store within the Apple system would create a huge proof, that the DMA can stimulate competition and thereby bring down prices for consumers,” Andreas Schwab, a member of the European Parliament who helped negotiate the DMA, advised WIRED.
Epic and Apple are longtime rivals. In 2020, Epic filed a lawsuit in opposition to Apple in California, arguing the corporate’s grip over the iOS market was “unreasonable and unlawful.” Apple got here out of the US case (principally) victorious. However in Europe, Epic has change into a part of a vocal neighborhood of builders who’re seething concerning the energy they understand Apple’s App Retailer to wield over their companies and the fee the corporate expenses on in-app purchases.
“Apple holds app providers ransom like the Mafia,” Matthias Pfau, CEO and cofounder of Tuta, an encrypted e-mail supplier, advised WIRED earlier this yr. Epic’s different app retailer proposal is a take a look at case for the opportunity of different different app shops that might reshape the connection between Apple and builders.
The Epic Video games Retailer is already obtainable on PC, Mac, and Android, however not on Google Play. Now, the corporate plans to proceed searching for approval for its iOS model, it stated: “Barring further roadblocks from Apple, we remain ready to launch in the Epic Games Store … on iOS in the EU in the next couple of months.”
