California: Apple has delivered a blow to the creators of the popular online game Fortnite by cancelling their developer account for the iPhone operating system in the European Union.
The accounts are critical as they allow creators, like Fortnite-maker Epic Games, to distribute their apps to iPhones.
Apple's move means Epic cannot launch its own app marketplace -called the Epic Games Store - or bring Fortnite to iPhone users.
"We recently announced that Apple approved our Epic Games Sweden ABdeveloper account," Epic Games explained in a blog post.
"We intended to use that account to bring the Epic Games Store and Fortnite to iOS devices in Europe thanks to the Digital Markets Act (DMA)."
"To our surprise, Apple has terminated that account and now we cannot develop the Epic Games Store for iOS," the statement continued.
Epic Games said this was a serious violation of the DMA, and showed that Apple had no intention to allow true competition on iOS devices.
With the introduction of the EU's groundbreaking Digital Markets Act from midnight on Wednesday, Apple has had to allow applications from sources other than its own App Store to be downloaded onto iPhones and iPads in the EU for the first time.
Epic wanted to use this to bring Fortnite back to the iPhone for users in the European Union and offer a competing app store.
Apple said on Wednesday that following previous breaches of the rules by Epic Games, its right to kick them off its platform had been confirmed in court. The developer has been banned from the App Store since August 2020following a breach of rules.
The dispute was triggered when Epic tried to circumvent the up to 30%levy that Apple withholds from transactions in its App Store.
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