UPDATED: Epic And Apple Are At It Again As Apple Terminates Epic's European Developer Account Because Sweeney Was Mean

If you've loved watching Apple and Epic fight it out in court and across social media, then another round of battle is just what the doctor ordered. The two are at it once again as Apple has terminated Epic's recently approved European developer account.

Here in the States, of course, Epic has been gone from iOS for some time after filing a lawsuit against Apple. Apple removed Epic Games from its iOS storefront after Epic attempted to circumvent Apple's 30% revenue cut with direct payments in Fortnite on iOS. This led to a series of court battles and social media posts that created quite the circus.

The courts did eventually decide that Apple cannot stop others on their platform from providing direct payment options, but that's about the only thing that went Epic's way in the lawsuit.

Now the EU is following suit with new regulations that are aimed at ensuring gatekeepers such as Apple don't stifle competition. What these new regulations don't seem to bypass however is Apple's right to just not allow developers on their platform.

“This is a serious violation of the DMA and shows Apple has no intention of allowing true competition on iOS devices,” Epic said in a post today.

“In terminating Epic’s developer account, Apple is taking out one of the largest potential competitors to the Apple App Store. They are undermining our ability to be a viable competitor and they are showing other developers what happens when you try to compete with Apple or are critical of their unfair practices,: the blog alleges.

“If Apple maintains its power to kick a third party marketplace off iOS at its sole discretion, no reasonable developer would be willing to utilize a third party app store, because they could be permanently separated from their audience at any time.”

Epic claims Apple cited recent X threads from Epic CEO Tim Sweeney that were critical of Apple's compliance plan as the reason for their account being shut down.

Apple's response? Short and sweet:

“Epic’s egregious breach of its contractual obligations to Apple led courts to determine that Apple has the right to terminate ‘any or all of Epic Games’ wholly owned subsidiaries, affiliates, and/or other entities under Epic Games’ control at any time and at Apple’s sole discretion.’ In light of Epic’s past and ongoing behavior, Apple chose to exercise that right.”

Somehow I doubt we've heard the last of all this. I'm sure there will now be more lawsuits incoming, and more ridiculous social media posturing.

UPDATE 3/7/2024: Regulators in the EU have confirmed to Reuters that they have requested more information from Apple on why they have taken this action and "are also evaluating whether Apple's actions raise doubts on their compliance with the DSA (Digital Services Act) and the P2B (Platform to Business Regulation), given the links between the developer programme membership and the App store as designated VLOP (very large online platform)."