Epic Games has accused Apple of not letting them put Fortnite back on the App Store in the United States and in Europe. The issue started when Apple reopened Epic’s developer account in Sweden, which should have let the company put its app store in the country and let people play Fortnite on their iPhones again in the EU under the new Digital Markets Act.
However, Epic says Apple won’t let Epic’s developer account go through in the United States, and is keeping it from moving forward or even stopping it altogether in Europe, too. Epic claims Apple is making these moves so it doesn’t have to face competition from the Epic Games Store, and so Fortnite can’t come back to iPhones.
According to Epic, Apple is using a few rules and not making it clear what they mean to slow down the progress of competing apps. Even though Apple had let Epic have their developer account in Sweden, they still haven’t finished everything they said they would do. Epic says Apple’s actions show that they don’t care about following the basic rules set in place to make app markets fair.
Epic also said that because of the delay in the legal processes, they won’t be able to open the Epic Games Store or launch Fortnite for iOS in the EU this year. This is the latest round of a fight that’s been going on between the two companies. Epic is still working to give developers more freedom and is trying to make it easier for people to get apps on iPhones and other iOS devices without Apple having such tight control over that process. Apple has not yet said anything in public about the new claims Epic has made.