Apple has abruptly reversed a decision to ban Epic Games, the maker of “Fortnite,” from launching its own app store on iOS in Europe — just a day after European Union officials said they were investigating the matter.
Epic CEO Tim Sweeney wrote back to Apple promising to abide by its terms, but Apple rescinded the developer account anyway.
In a statement after the emails were published, Apple publicly justified the move by referencing US court rulings that affirmed Apple’s right to terminate Epic’s accounts for any reason.
Now, however, Apple appears to have relented in the face of pushback by EU officials — paving the way for Epic, and “Fortnite,” to again become available to players on iOS in Europe.
Did you read the rest of the article. Apple didn't back down when Epic promised to abide by the rules. They backed down when the EU got involved.
Apple also listed reasons for disabling the account being criticism of Apple. Which is ludicrous.
I don't think apple should have backed down. Epic has proven itself to not care for the rules and deliberately manipulate public opinion.
Epic knew introducing a third-party payment system would kick them off the ios store so they spun up a special interest group and tried to claim Epic as a victim of big tech despite also bing a multi billion dollar company.
And before people make assumptions, I don't support the apple walled garden either. I like having alternative app stores and hope to see fdroid make an appearance on iOS.
As an Apple user I do not want the viruses and other bullshit that comes with being able to install anything on the phone.
Literally this week I saw an android thread talking about a banking app that doesn't work because it was erroneously thinking the phone was rooted, and there is easily install able malware that roots your phone and does malicious things on android.
The walled garden is a feature for the people who buy Apple products, and it being torn down does nothing for any of us.
This will solely help Epic games make more money, and nothing else.
Who cares if their a multi billion dollar company. Apple can still bully them and Apple is a multi Trillion dollar company. That is an insane amount of money.
I just can't understand defending monopolies. The question here is not what is right for apple or epic, it's what is the best outcome for the human customer.