One of the most popular online shooters, Fortnite, is back on the App Store worldwide, except for Australia.
This was reported by the game developer Epic Games.
The US Supreme Court said that Appleʼs case is being monitored by regulators from other countries, who are checking whether Apple is abusing its position in the application market and the size of commissions in the App Store.
“We are returning because we are confident that once Apple reveals all of its costs, governments around the world will not allow the company to charge unreasonable fees,” Epic said.
Fortnite has not yet returned to the App Store in Australia, as a separate lawsuit against Apple is ongoing there. The court has already ruled some of the companyʼs rules illegal, but Apple, according to Epic, continues to enforce them.
Epic Games lawsuits with Apple and Google
The lawsuits between Epic Games and Apple and Google have been ongoing since 2020. It all started when Epic Games added its own payment system to the game Fortnite, bypassing the App Store or Play Store.
During such payments, a 20% discount was directly included in the price, while when paying through the App Store or Play Store, the discount was not provided. Epic Games explained this decision by the fact that the app stores from Google and Apple had a built-in commission for programs not produced by them. And while Google allowed third-party app stores to be installed on its smartphones, Apple did not give such permission.
In response, Apple removed the game from its store. Google did the same. Epic Games filed several lawsuits, and the developers of Fortnite launched a media campaign against Apple #FreeFortnite, within which they called on their players to demand compensation if they lose access to the game on their gadgets.
In 2023, the EUʼs antitrust law on digital markets came into effect. The law forced Apple to allow EU users to download apps from third-party stores. Since then, iOS users in the EU have been able to download Fortnite from the Epic Games Store. However, outside the EU, the game was still not available for download on iPhones.
That same year, Epic Games won a lawsuit against Google over its illegal monopoly of the Google Play app store. In 2024, Epic Games announced the launch of its new mobile game store, which also included Fortnite.
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