Epic Games is annoyed UK regulator isn't working harder to enable third-party app stores
Epic Games has complained that the UK competition regulator has decided against forcing Apple to allow alternatives to the App Store to exist in the country, claiming that it may prevent 'Fortnite' for iOS from being re-released there.
A still from a video at the start of the Apple-Epic lawsuit battle - Image Credit: Epic Games
On July 23, the UK's Competitions and Markets Authority (CMA) explained that the government wanted to designate Apple and Google as having a strategic market status, allowing for new regulations to apply to them. While the CMA has requested opinions and input on the proposal, Epic Games has signaled that it is against the designation.
In a statement released later the same day, Epic Games insists the CMA's roadmap "doesn't open the mobile app ecosystem to competition in the UK." To a level that it believes bringing Fortnite back to iOS in the UK is now "uncertain."
To Epic, the CMA is not prioritizing allowing alternatives to the App Store to open up in 2025, and is leaving the possibility of reconsideration to 2026.
This is claimed to be a "missed opportunity" to bring more competition to the market, along with the insistence that this will "unlock economic growth" in a supposedly monopolized market. Four years ago, the CMA concluded that the App Store and Google's Play Store are parallel monopolies, but Epic insists nothing has been done to allow other stores into the space.
Allowing multiple stores to exist is a requirement of the free market, Epic believes, since stores would be competing on price and service. Without this situation, existing stores will have a "state-sanctioned monopoly" that works against app creators and consumers.
While the EU Digital Markets Act introduced competition via alternative stores, the CMA has "deprioritized store competition entirely."
Anti-steering
Epic also takes aim at the CMA making a "vague announcement" about anti-steering rules. The CMA said that it was going to allow developers to steer customers to payment mechanisms and storefronts outside of apps and the traditional in-app-purchase system.
However, Epic said that the CMA's announcement didn't mention any references to restrictions, obstructions, and "junk fees" that Apple brought in to counter measures in the Digital Markets Act.
Epic wants the CMA to block Apple and Google from imposing similar fees for out-of-app payments, otherwise it can expect "years of malicious compliance" that won't help competition as intended.
The news out of the UK is considered to be "bleak," Epic concludes, especially compared to other markets that have allowed other stores to exist.
"We hope the CMA will use its consultation process to re-examine these weak roadmap decisions and bring the benefits of genuine app store and payments competition to British consumers," Epic concludes.
An obvious intention
Epic's rant on the CMA's stance on digital app storefront competition in the UK is one that is motivated by capitalism. It is obvious that Epic wants the CMA to force Apple to allow alternative digital storefronts in the App Store because it will profit from the move.
Epic's entire battle against Apple is for its own gain
The Epic Games Store exists in Europe, and will be landing in Brazil and Japan later in 2025. Much like the App Store itself, the Epic Games Store profits from the sale of digital products and in-app purchases of various kinds.
The CMA's continued and plodding investigation isn't allowing Epic to actually open its store in the UK, which it desperately wants.
There's also the motivation in fighting the platform fees that Apple wants developers to pay if they use other app storefronts in Europe. To Epic, those fees put off consumers and developers from selling their apps beyond the App Store, simply because of the pricing.
Without those extra Apple fees, developers in those stores could get more revenue without changing prices. They could even maintain revenue while cutting the price, potentially drawing in more customers.
In either case, the store that these transactions pass through will benefit, either through higher revenues per purchase or an increase in the number of purchases.
It is evident that, as demonstrated throughout the Epic-Apple legal fight, Epic has a vested interest in being able to make sales outside of the App Store.
To a typical developer, this could be a few percentage points of revenue. To Epic, it stands to earn millions, if not billions, from the rule changes.
Read on AppleInsider
Comments