Fortnite is making a comeback on European iPhones, but when?

The mobile game Fortnite, a real social phenomenon in the years 2018-2020, has just made its comeback on European iPhones. As a reminder, Fortnite was excluded by Apple on August 13, 2020. The same day, Epic Games, the studio behind the mobile game, sued Apple for abuse of dominant position. The start of a legal war which lasted more than three years.

If the American courts gave no real winner in this case, Epic Games hit the jackpot on the old continent. The mobile studio in fact asked the various jurisdictions to force the creation of healthy competition to overshadow the App Store, which has a monopoly on the billions of Apple products in circulation around the world.

But the Apple brand did not see it that way, and it defended itself, managing to convince the American courts. In Europe, things have been very different in recent years. Indeed, Apple has not managed to prevent the adoption of the DMA, a text of law favoring the creation of companies competing with the “gatekeepers” of digital.

The App Store is no longer alone, Fortnite returns

The arrival of this new law at the European level forced Apple to adapt earlier in the year. The Apple brand has therefore allowed developers to offer third-party App Stores. As soon as the official announcement was made, Epic Games already took the opportunity to announce the arrival of its own service. The brand owned by Tim Sweeney should therefore launch an Epic Games Store in the coming months, headlined by Fortnite.

However, the arrival of such a store raises several questions. The first, and most important, will be whether it must pay a “core technology fee” – this new Apple commission invented by Apple after the adoption of the DMA costs 50 euro cents per application download. In the case of the Epic Games Store, this could represent millions of euros every year to be paid to Apple.

Several third-party developers who intend to launch competitors to the App Store have already appealed this new commission in the European courts. Recently Margarethe Vestager announced that a new investigation was being opened against Apple to verify whether the brand with the apple is complying with the terms of the DMA. For many, this is not the case.