Epic Games gains partial victory over Apple and Google in Australia
Australia has ruled that Apple's App Store and Google's Play Store are uncompetitive, leading Epic Games to declare victory in its years-long legal case, and announce that "Fortnite" will return to iOS in the country.
The case in Australia has been practically a mirror image of the Epic Games vs Apple suit in the US, to the extent that Australian courts suspended it until the American version reached a conclusion. Having originally been filed in 2020, the case accusing both Apple and Google of anticompetitive behavior resumed in 2024 and has now reached an initial judgement.
The Epic Games Store and Fortnite will come to iOS in Australia! An Australian court just found that Apple and Google abuse their control over app distribution and in-app payments to limit competition. There are 2,000+ pages of findings that we'll need to dig into to fully
-- Epic Games Newsroom (@EpicNewsroom)
According to ABC News Australia, the ruling runs to 2,000 pages, but only a summary version has been publicly released so far. In it, Australia's federal court said that it found both Apple's and Google's app stores had no protection against anti-competitive behavior.
It notes, though, that this is not the same as finding that these companies had intentionally broken the law. Judge Jonathan Beach ruled that the two had misused their market power, however, saying that they had "engaged in conduct... that had the purpose or is likely to have or had the effect of substantially lessening competition."
Epic's 1984 parody -- image credit: Epic Games
"Specifically, conduct that prevents or prohibits the direct downloading or sideloading of native apps," he continued, "and conduct that prevents or prohibits developers and users from using alternative payment methods."
"The fact that Apple has imposed those centralised app distribution system for the purpose of protecting security, does not entail that there is not also a substantial anti-competitive purpose involved," he concluded.
Epic Games didn't win everything
However, Judge Beach also ruled against Epic Games, rejecting the developer's accusations that Apple and Google had engaged in what's called unconscionable conduct.
In a statement, Apple said that "we welcome the Australian court's rejection of some of Epic's claims, however, we strongly disagree with the court's ruling on others."
"Apple faces fierce competition in every market where we operate," continued the company's statement. "We continuously invest and innovate to make the App Store the safest place for users to get apps and a great business opportunity for developers in Australia and around the world."
In a similar ruling to the separate US Epic Games vs Google case, Austalia did note that Android allows sideloading, but effectively only in theory. In practice, both courts said, Google controls the Android eco system and imposes its own payment system.
Judge Beach did, though, reject Epic Games's demand that Google distribute alternative app stores from within its Play Store. In a statement, Google said that it welcomed this rejection, but otherwise disagrees "with the court's characterisation of our billing policies and practices."
Epic Games has noted publicly that it has yet to study the full ruling, but is already claiming that this is "a WIN for developers and consumers in Australia."
What the ruling definitely does is allow certain class action lawsuits to pursue settlements. Two separate cases representing developers and consumers are reportedly seeking hundreds of millions of dollars in compensation for over-priced iOS apps.
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Sony and Nintendo appear to have gotten their business plan right in someways.