Epic Games touts new EU regulations after Apple restores developer account

Epic Games touted the European Union’s (EU) new tech regulations on Friday, after Apple agreed to reinstate the Fortnite maker’s developer account as it looks to launch a competing app store for iOS devices in Europe.

“Apple has told us and committed to the European Commission that they will reinstate our developer account,” Epic said in an update. “This sends a strong signal to developers that the European Commission will act swiftly to enforce the Digital Markets Act and hold gatekeepers accountable.”

Epic, which announced last month that it had secured a developer account to bring the Epic Games Store to iOS in Europe, said Wednesday that Apple had terminated its account and accused the iPhone maker of violating the EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA).

In an email to Epic founder and CEO Tim Sweeney, Apple said it did not believe the video game developer intended to follow its new rules under the DMA, based on Sweeney’s recent criticism of Apple’s DMA compliance plan and Epic’s previous decision to break its App Store payment rules.

Epic intentionally sought to bypass the App Store’s payment system in protest of Apple’s rules in 2020, prompting the iPhone maker to block Fortnite from the App Store and leading to a yearslong legal battle between the two companies.

Thierry Breton, the European Commissioner for Internal Market, said Thursday that regulators were looking into Apple’s decision to terminate Epic’s developer account “as a matter of priority.”

Apple ultimately reinstated Epic’s developer account, saying the Fortnite maker had “committed to follow the rules, including our DMA policies.” 

Sweeney described the dispute and resolution between Epic and Apple on Friday as the “first major challenge” and “first major victory” for the DMA.

“A big win for European rule of law, for the European Commision, and for the freedom of developers worldwide to speak up,” the Epic CEO added in a post on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.

Breton also touted Apple’s decision on Friday, saying that the DMA is “already showing very concrete results.”

The DMA, which took effect this week, targets six of the world’s largest tech companies. Apple is joined by Amazon, Facebook’s parent company Meta, Google’s parent company Alphabet, Microsoft and TikTok’s parent company ByteDance in facing the new rules aimed at increasing competition in the tech sector.