Apple Quietly Accepts Epic Games Store Submission in EU App Store After Outcry

Apple quickly bowed to public pressure after Epic Games accused it of violating the EU Digital Markets Act (DMA) by rejecting its Epic Game Store submission, twice, for what are clearly arbitrary reasons designed to punish the company. It all happened very quickly: Epic Games complained Friday morning, and by Friday afternoon, Apple had quietly acquiesced and approved the App Store submission in the EU.

But don’t worry, the drama isn’t over yet. And if these two obstinate companies stay true to form, it never will be.

After Epic aired Apple’s rejection of its App Store submission and revealed that it had reported the company to EU antitrust regulators, it provided an update.

“Apple has informed us that our previously rejected Epic Games Store notarization submission has now been accepted,” Epic Games tweeted Friday afternoon.

But Epic CEO Tim Sweeney, a vocal critic of Apple’s anticompetitive business practices, added another complaint, hinting that Apple is doing everything it can behind the scenes to harm Epic and its ability to publish its own game store in the iOS App Store.

“The Epic Games Store app for iOS has now been un-rejected by Apple and development is back on track,” he noted. “Now about those 9- to 16-day TestFlight app approval delays…” (TestFlight is the Apple system developers have to use to beta test pre-release app versions with small groups of customers.) When a followed noted that this unprecedented behavior seemed deliberated, Sweeney replied, “Yep.”

But then it got weird. Or at least weirder.

“Apple’s DMA saga has taken a turn towards the absurd,” Mr. Sweeney tweeted later Friday. “Apple is now telling reporters that this approval is temporary and [they] are demanding we change the buttons in the next version – which would make our store less standard and harder to use. We’ll fight this.”

This references the made-up issue that was allegedly behind Apple’s two-time rejection of Epic’s App Store submission: Apple told Epic that “the design and position” of one button and the text label on another button in Epic’s game store were “too similar” to buttons that Apple uses. But as Epic explained, these buttons are standard conventions broadly used across mobile platforms. “We’re just trying to build a store that mobile users can easily understand, and the disclosure of in-app purchases is a regulatory best practice followed by all stores nowadays,” it noted at the time.

The Apple App review process that Epic Games is undergoing right now is called notarization, and while it’s new this year on iOS and only applies to apps using alternate distribution methods in the EU, Apple previously used this process for apps submitted to the Mac App Store. The point of notarizing an app is to ensure that it doesn’t have viruses, malware, or other security issues, and that it works as the developer said it would, without exposing users to “egregious fraud.” The notarization process notably does not include quality or content checks, and most of it is fully automated. It’s clear that Apple is paying special attention to Epic’s app and is literally inventing reasons to reject its submissions.

Epic Games says it remains “ready to launch in the Epic Games Store and Fortnite on iOS in the EU in the next couple of months.” You know, barring any other arbitrary Apple obstructions.