On Friday 8 March, the American video game developer Epic Games announced that Apple had undertaken to restore its developer account on the App Store, just 24 hours after the European Commission said it suspected a possible breach of the new regulation on digital markets (see EUROPE 13367/13).
The termination of Epic’s account on 6 March prevented the games company from offering Fortnite and the Epic Games Store on Apple’s iOS devices in the EU, and thereby offering an alternative and competition to Apple’s monopoly.
Friday’s announcement was applauded by Epic CEO Tim Sweeney, who hailed it as “a big win for European rule of law, for the European Commission, and for the freedom of developers worldwide to speak up”.
The European Commissioner for the Internal Market, Thierry Breton, also expressed his satisfaction with Apple’s announcement: “I take note that following our contacts, Apple decided to backtrack on its decision [...]. From the day two, the DMA is already showing very concrete results!”, he declared in a message posted on X. (Original version in French by Isalia Stieffatre)