‘Apple chose poorly’: Angry Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney on ‘Big’ App Store change in Japan

Tim Sweeney, the CEO of Epic Games, has lashed out at Apple as the tech giant opened the iPhone to alternative app marketplaces in Japan to comply with new local laws. Soon after Apple’s announcement, Sweeney took to social media platform X (formerly Twitter), calling the move a “travesty of obstruction” while confirming that Fortnite will not return to iOS in Japan as promised for 2025.Japan’s new competition laws have been designed to break Apple’s 30% commission monopoly, and provide Japanese developers a “choice” while maintaining security. According to changes, Japanese developers can now launch their own app stores on iPhone, paying Apple a 5% commission on sales. Furthermore, developers using the standard App Store can now link to external websites for payments, though Apple will still collect a 15% fee on those transactions.

Sweeney, who has been a longtime critic of Apple’s “walled garden,” denounced the new rules as anticompetitive while arguing that Apple is swapping one monopoly for another through a series of “junk fees.”

Sweeney labels 15% web-purchase fee and the 5% distribution fee as illegal

Sadly, Fortnite will not return to iOS in Japan in 2025 as promised. Apple was required to open up iOS to competing stores today, and instead of doing so honestly, they have launched another travesty of obstruction and lawbreaking in gross disrespect to the government and people of Japan.Apple chose poorly. Again.They’re charging a competition-crushing 21% junk fee on third-party in-app payments, and 15% for purchases made on the web (a practice the US District Court already found to be illegal in the contempt of court proceeding that Apple lost and the 9th Circuit Court upheld): https://developer.apple.com/support/payment-options-on-the-app-store-in-japanThey’re introducing new anticompetitive warning screens meant to mislead customers into believing their privacy and financial security are at risk when dealing with Apple competitors.They’re imposing a new 5% junk fee on all revenue from apps distributed by competing stores, and intend to surveil all transactions within them using a mandatory reporting API: https://developer.apple.com/help/app-store-connect/making-payments-to-apple/reporting-tokens-and-transactions. This is an egregious Apple imposition on distribution and payments they have no involvement with, and a practice the US courts already found to be illegal and upheld on appeal.Obviously, real competition won’t happen, and consumers won’t benefit, when Apple abuses its position between users and competitors to obstruct honest dealing between them. This is another sad day in the history of relationships between platform makers, developers, and consumers, and we will be raising our complaints with the Japanese Fair Trade Commission.