Epic Games CEO, Tim Sweeney, has taken to X to criticise the new EU App Store terms as 'junk' and not compliant with EU law, despite the commission telling the Irish Independent that they welcome the changes.
On Tuesday, Apple announced changes to App Store fees in EU nations, following a long-running dispute with the European Union. These changes included dropping the 5% commission on transactions distributed outside of the App Store, and cutting Apple In-App Purchase to 26%, for most developers.
Following the announcement, Epic Games CEO, who leads the company behind Fortnite, took to X to criticise the new fees:
"Looks like Apple’s PR team conned Bloomberg into adopting a false narrative in their headline, spinning their new EU junk fee regime as part of a settlement (it’s not), and compliant with EU law (it’s not). No @markgurman byline on this hot garbage of a story."
Though this may not be the end of the dispute, as the EU has said that they "will monitor Apple’s effective implementation of the new terms", the commission told the Irish Independent:
"The Commission welcomes Apple’s changes to their business terms, which follow a close dialogue between the Commission and Apple after the Commission issued a non-compliance decision related to Apple’s steering terms as well as preliminary findings related to alternative app distribution, both in April 2025"
This contrasts with Sweeneys comments, as the EU appears to welcome the new terms from Apple.
Sweeney has long criticised Apple's App Store fees. However, his company also operates a marketplace commission model, on the Epic Games Store, which takes a 12% cut from developers using its marketplace, after their first million.
Many other companies also use a commission-based marketplace model, including the Google Play Store, Microsoft Store and gaming platform Roblox.
