Apple to Epic Games: “Play By The Same Rules”

In new news regarding the Epic Games vs. Apple lawsuit, Epic has asked Apple to allow the Fortnite developer account back onto the iOS platform in South Korea. Epic has plans to re-release Fortnite on iOS in Korea; offering both Epic payment and Apple payment side-by-side in compliance with the new Korean law.

The South Korean government had passed a bill in August. The updated Telecommunications Business Act will apparently mandate tech giants such as Apple to let developers use third-party payment systems. In effect, this means that Apple cannot force developers to use their payment systems. This has given the lawsuit a new jolt in the particular context of South Korea.

Epic has asked Apple to restore our Fortnite developer account. Epic intends to re-release Fortnite on iOS in Korea offering both Epic payment and Apple payment side-by-side in compliance with the new Korean law.

— Fortnite (@FortniteGame) September 9, 2021

Play By The Same Rules

• Apple has taken a strong stand, refusing to budge. In a statement, Apple stated that “As we’ve said all along, we would welcome Epic’s return to the App Store if they agree to play by the same rules as everyone else.
• Epic has admitted to breaching of contract and as of now, there’s no legitimate basis for the reinstatement of their developer account.” Apple said that Epic has not been consistently abiding by the App Store Review Guidelines and that the new request by Epic does not show any indication that Epic will abide by the Guidelines in the future.
• The statement by Apple also indicated that even if the bill passed were to be enacted as law, it would still not impose any obligation on Apple to approve any developer’s program account app.
• Apple is not willing to budge from their position with Epic, even though they are being increasingly scrutinized for anti-trust by global regulators and their controversial 30% Apple Store commission charges.

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