Apple ends block on EU app store for Fortnite-maker Epic

WASHINGTON, March 10: Apple reversed course on Friday and will allow Epic Games to develop a competing European app store for iPhones after a feud between the two companies tested a new law governing big tech on the continent.

"Following conversations with Epic, they have committed to follow the rules, including our DMA policies," an Apple spokesperson said in an email to AFP.

"As a result, Epic Sweden AB has been permitted to re-sign the developer agreement and accepted into the Apple Developer Program," the spokesperson added.
Apple was referring to the Digital Markets Act, a landmark European law that came into force on Thursday and orders the worlds biggest tech companies to open up their platforms to competition.

Six of the biggest companies designated as "gatekeepers" had until the end of Thursday to comply with tough new DMA rules.

Epic CEO Tim Sweeney called the turnaround "a big win for European rule of law, for the European Commission, and for the freedom of developers worldwide to speak up."

The maker of Fortnite earlier in the week told the EU commission that its effort to build an app store for its video game empire had been rejected by Apple.

Specifically, Apple on March 2 closed Epics Sweden-based developer account that allowed it to build the software necessary to launch its standalone stores on Apple devices in Europe.

Sweeney had compared Apples actions to "feudal lords mounting the skulls of their former enemies on their castle" in an effort "to dissuade others" from speaking out. Epic Games has been in Apples and Googles crosshairs for years over access to the app store.    —AFP