Fortnite is one step closer to making its comeback in Australia as Epic Games secured its latest court wins in two separate cases against Apple and Google. The Federal Court of Australia concluded that both Apple and Google violated the local competition law by abusing their market power in how they operate their app stores. The 30% in-app commission fees charged by both Apple and Google were signaled out as key instances of limiting competition.
Epic Games founder and CEO Tim Sweeney confirmed that Fortnite will make its return to iOS devices in Australia via the Epic Games store soon.
While the latest ruling is big for Epic, the court rejected some of the Fortnite maker’s claims, including accusations of breached consumer law and engagement in “unconscionable conduct” by Apple and Google.
Apple and Google issued official statements with both companies disagreeing with the court’s verdict against their billing policies and claims of anticompetitive advantages.
Epic launched its legal fight against Apple in Australia back in November 2020 and later filed similar anti-competition claims against Google in March 2021. Both cases are handled simultaneously by the Federal Court of Australia, and the 2,000+ page verdict won’t be released publicly for now.