Epic Games has published a blog post criticizing “today’s bleak news from the United Kingdom,” and listing all the reasons why the company believes the recently announced rules fell short of its expectations.
What Digital Markets regulation?
Earlier today, the U.K.’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) concluded a months-long investigation and recommended that both Apple and Google should be designated as having a “strategic market status” under the new Digital Markets, Competition, and Consumers Act.
Under the new designation, Apple and Google will be subject to specific regulatory obligations, including requirements to allow app developers to direct users to alternative payment methods, mandates to increase transparency in app store rankings, and ongoing CMA oversight for up to five years.
As reported by CBNC, for next year the CMA will look into “whether to require Apple to allow alternative app stores in iOS (…),” and “(…) is exploring whether to force Apple to allow users” to sideload apps.
What did Epic Games say?
In a loaded blog post, the company said:
“We can’t bring the Epic Games Store to iOS in the UK this year (if ever), and Fortnite’s return to iOS in the UK is now uncertain.
The CMA, the UK competition regulator, is choosing not to prioritize opening the mobile ecosystem to alternative app stores this year in the roadmaps for Apple and Google that were released today. This is a missed opportunity to introduce competition into a currently-monopolized market and unlock economic growth and consumer choice. Four years after concluding that the App Store and Google Play Store are parallel monopolies the CMA has done nothing to allow competing stores.”
The text goes on to compare today’s CMA announcement in the UK with recent regulatory developments in Brazil and Japan, which they claim will allow the return of Fortnite and the release of the Epic Games Store “later this year.”
The company also criticized the CMA’s “vague announcement” regarding anti-steering provisions, and cited the recent court orders in the U.S. as an example of what it was hoping for:
“The CMA also made a vague announcement about allowing developers to steer customers to payment service outside of apps, without referencing the kinds of restrictions, obstructions and junk fees that Apple introduced in Europe to make a mockery of the Digital Markets Act. Unless Apple and Google are completely blocked from imposing fees and discriminating against apps using out-of-app payment, we can expect years of malicious compliance ahead, and no genuine restoration of market competition. The standard in this area has been set by the US court order, which concluded all such fees and obstructions are unlawful, and forced Apple to introduce real payment competition which has genuinely benefited customers of apps like Spotify, Amazon, Stripe, and Fortnite.”
Finally, Epic Games says it hopes the CMA will “re-examine these weak roadmap decisions”, otherwise it may not bring Fortnite back to iOS in the U.K. at all.
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