put the kibosh on Epic's plans to launch the Epic Games Store for the iPhone in the EU where such a thing is possible thanks to the Digital Markets Act . But on Wednesday, the tech giant closed Epic's Developer Account in the EU which prevented the company from offering its Epic Games Store to iPhone users in the 27 EU countries. As you might know, the DMA forced Apple to allow iPhone users in the EU to sideload apps from third-party app stores.
Apple said that it had the right to terminate Epic's EU Developer Account due to a past court ruling that pointed out Epic's"egregious breach of its contractual obligations." Last Wednesday, Apple said,"In light of Epic’s past and ongoing behavior, Apple chose to exercise that right." But over the last two days, Apple and Epic sat down to talk and Epic convinced Apple that it wouldn't break the rules as it did four years ago.
Back in 2020, Epic slipped in a page to the iOS version of Fortnite that allowed users to buy VBucks game currency directly from Epic instead of going through the App Store as Apple's rules dictated. Because this would have allowed Epic to skip paying Apple its 30% cut of in-app purchases, Epic was directly selling its game currency for less than the price listed in the App Store.
Had Apple not changed its mind, it could have faced a $38.3 billion penalty or 10% of its fiscal 2023 revenue