Apple refused to reinstate the wildly popular “Fortnite” game in its South Korean App Store on Friday despite a new Seoul anti-monopoly law that escalated an ongoing dispute with the videogame developer, its lucrative digital payments platform. effectively eliminates it. epic games. The two firms are at the forefront of a global competition between delivery platforms and content creators over how revenue should be divided, with billions of dollars at stake. Apple removed “Fortnite” from its store last year after Epic introduced direct in-app payments, bypassing the tech giant’s own system.
epic lawsuit Apple Further matter on removal is before the courts in the United States. In a world first, South Korea passed a law last month barring Apple and Google from forcing app developers to use the tech giant’s payment systems, effectively blocking their lucrative App Store and Play Store. declared the monopoly illegal. Expected to take effect in the coming days, this will make South Korea the first country to mandate such alternative payment options, allowing users to bypass fees set by store owners.
“Epic is looking to re-release Fortnite on iOS in Korea, offering both Epic Pay and Apple Pay, in compliance with the new Korean law,” the game company said on its verified Fortnite Twitter account on Friday. But in a statement to AFP, Apple said it would not allow Epic Games to return to the App Store unless they agreed to “play by the same rules as everyone else”. “Epic has acknowledged the breach of contract and, so far, has no valid grounds to reinstate their developer account,” it added.
apple and Google The app has faced global criticism for charging commissions of up to 30 percent on sales and requiring the use of its own payment systems, which collect a portion of the transaction. They face several class-action lawsuits over the rules, and last month a settlement was struck in the US that allowed smaller developers to inform their customers about alternative payment options beyond the App Store.
In August US senators also introduced legislation that would make it illegal for store operators such as Apple and Google to require the use of their own payment systems for transactions. A verdict is expected later in its case against Epic, whose action-packed first-person shooter “Fortnite” is one of the most popular games in the world, with more than 350 million users — more than the US population.
It’s also free to play, with players earning billions in revenue from purchasing additional costumes and dance moves. Friday’s announcement by Epic came after its CEO Tim Sweeney enthusiastically welcomed the passage of the law, calling it “a major milestone in the 45-year history of personal computing” on his Twitter account. “I’m a Korean,” he said.
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