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- Australia’s federal court orders Apple to open up its iOS ecosystem in Australia to third-party app stores
- Apple has also been ordered to restore Epic Games’ Fortnite back to the Australian App Store
- Apple denies it has a monopoly in Australia and plans to appeal the decision
Australia’s Federal Court has ordered Apple to fully open up its iOS ecosystem in the country to third-party competitors, with Justice Jonathan Beach ruling that the tech giant abused its market power to maintain a monopoly over app distribution and in-app payments.
The ruling also ordered Apple to restore the video game Fortnite and other Epic Games apps back to the Australian App Store, six years after the Cupertino tech giant banned the game for circumventing Apple’s payment systems.
Both orders are set to come into effect on March 1, 2027 at noon Australian Eastern Time.
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“In response to regulatory or judicial limitations imposed in connection with the App Store, which are anything but detailed, prescriptive and precise, Apple has systematically implemented practices that attempt to circumvent the practical effects of these limitations,” reads the ruling.
Beach also said that Apple “has developed and pursued a deliberate and comprehensive strategy of deterioration in relation to iOS app distribution.”
An Apple spokesperson told TechRadar that the company “does not have a monopoly position in Australia or in any market around the world. We respectfully agree with many conclusions in this case, including a market definition that has been rejected by other courts.
“We are requesting a stay and appealing the outcome to seek a resolution that respects our intellectual property and protects the safe, secure experience that consumers and developers expect from the App Store.”
Apple has until February 15 to appeal this decision.
TechRadar has also contacted Epic Games for comment, however Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney took to X (formerly Twitter) to celebrate the ruling.
The Australian Epic v Apple antitrust remedies have just been issued, and are a huge victory for consumers and developers. We are studying the ruling and will share more soon. The court has freed Fortnite in Australia and it will return alongside the Epic Games Store…soon. https://t.co/Ib1FIu1z9tOctober 22, 2026
Apple and Epic Games have gone back and forth in court since the former removed Fortnite from the Apple App Store in August 2020 for selling the in-game currency V-Bucks in a way that would bypass Apple’s 30% commission fee on in-app purchases.
Last year, the US Supreme Court also ruled that Apple had engaged in competitive behavior and pricing. A separate ruling in 2024, meanwhile, forced Apple to allow US customers to add links and buttons in their apps that take them to a website where they can enter credit card information, although it ultimately did not allow Epic Games’ petition to open iOS to competing stores and payments. Sweeney, at the time, called the ruling “a sad outcome for all developers.”
No more loops?
With Apple looking to appeal this ruling, these changes are far from guaranteed to happen in March next year, but it would be interesting to see if the tech giant adopts a similar “compliance through friction” strategy in Australia.
The 2024 ruling above saw Apple implement a 27% commission on transactions completed on those external websites, a disclosure warning and limited developers to use traditional buttons or persuasive call-to-action language.
Justice Beach called them “deterrence tactics”, saying the fees “block any real prospect of competition” and explicitly addressed these “disproportionate frictions”, non-neutral disclosures and discriminatory fees in the ruling.
The ruling outlines specific prohibitions that Apple must follow:
- Implementation of the Core Technology Fee
- 27% commissions on transactions made through external websites
- Revelation sheets
- Forcing developers into new, bundled contracts just to use alternative distribution
- Developers are also required to display Apple’s In-App Purchase (IAP) button next to their preferred payment method
- Developers are forced to appoint Apple as their legal “agent” for marketing and delivery.
Some potential workarounds that Apple may explore could be under the guise of “security standards” by using user interface design to discourage users from aggressive geofencing, or we could even see something completely different.
In any case, this is far from the last time Apple and Epic Games will face each other in court, with Apple’s appeal to the US Supreme Court scheduled for sometime during its October 2026-2027 term. The EU is still actively investigating Apple while Epic Games continues to challenge Cupertino’s policies under the DMA.
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