Do you find it easy to do business with companies that have broken promises and lobbied against your company? Would you even try?
Citing the Digital Markets Act (DMA), the European Union (EU) has requested “further explanations” from Apple regarding its decision to close down the developer account of Fortnite publisher Epic Games. Apple says it does not trust Epic, citing the game developer’s history of untrustworthy actions.
This is bad news for Epic, which had hoped to launch its own Epic Games Store on iOS in the EU now that Apple has been forced to open up to third-party stores there.
But perhaps Apple has a point.When friends become enemies
Apple fans will likely know the background story: Epic kicked off a wave of investigation, litigation, and complaint against Apple’s App Store business practices. By doing so, it broke its developer agreement and installed an external payment system within its app, which it knew Apple would reject.
These moves were all pre-planned; the moment Apple evicted the errant developer, Epic sued and launched a well-financed, heavily planned litigation and publicity campaign against the so-called “Apple Tax.“
It began legal action against Cupertino in multiple nations (most of which failed) and arguably put in action forces that culminated in the EU’s Digital Markets Act, which requires Apple to support third-party app stores and payment systems on its platforms.Trust is essential to business
Now with the DMA on its side, Epic planned on launching its own games service on iOS. And while it has publicly continued to slam the “Apple Tax” Cupertino wants from third parties offering such stores, it assured Apple it wouldn’t violate its App Store rules this time.
Apple shut its account anyway, saying it couldn’t trust Epic.
