Epic Games and Apple are still locked in a high-stakes showdown, and Fortnite’s return to iPhone in every market isn’t happening as smoothly as many players expected. Even after recent courtroom wins that strengthened Epic’s position, Epic CEO Tim Sweeney says the company will keep Fortnite off iOS in Japan for now, pointing to what he calls Apple’s latest round of “junk fees” and tighter control over payments.
Japan recently opened the door for third-party app stores on iOS under the country’s Smartphone Act, a move that should have made it easier for major publishers to distribute apps outside Apple’s own storefront. But Sweeney argues the new system doesn’t create real competition. Instead, he claims Apple has structured the rules to keep developers paying substantial fees even when transactions happen outside the App Store.
According to Sweeney, Apple is applying what he describes as a competition-stifling fee structure, including a 21% charge on third-party in-app payments and 15% on purchases made on the web. He also alleges Apple is adding a new 5% fee on revenue from apps distributed through competing stores. On top of that, Sweeney says Apple plans to monitor transactions in competing marketplaces through a mandatory reporting API, which he portrays as Apple reaching into transactions it “has no involvement with.”
Sweeney’s broader message is that consumers won’t see meaningful benefits if Apple can continue to act as the gatekeeper between users and developers while setting terms that discourage alternative stores and payment systems. In his view, that power dynamic blocks “honest dealing” and prevents a true level playing field, even when regulations or court decisions push Apple to open up.
These complaints arrive against the backdrop of a long-running legal saga in the United States. A court previously ordered Apple to remove anti-steering restrictions, which limited how developers could direct users to payment options outside Apple’s system. More recently, Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers found Apple in willful violation of that earlier injunction and issued an order that, among other consequences, prevented Apple from collecting commissions on purchases made outside the App Store.
Apple appealed. The Ninth Circuit largely backed the overall direction of the ruling but said one part of the penalty went too far, calling the commission ban not properly limited as a civil contempt sanction. The appeals court reversed that portion and sent it back to the district court while otherwise affirming the April 30 order.
For developers and consumers around the world, the case is now shaping expectations well beyond the US. Pressure is building in other regions for similar freedoms—such as sideloading and broader access to external payment methods without extra tolls. In Australia, for example, Epic has pushed for the ability to install apps on Apple devices without commissions tied to those transactions.
Even with the appeal partly trimming the earlier penalty, Apple still isn’t fully cleared to resume business as usual. The court has indicated Apple must either negotiate with Epic on a commission rate for external payments or have a court determine what’s appropriate. Until that process is finalized, Apple reportedly still can’t collect commissions on payments made outside the App Store.
Epic, however, doesn’t sound eager to meet Apple in the middle. Sweeney has said he can’t see any justification for charging developers a percentage of their revenue for transactions that don’t run through Apple’s own payment rails. That stance helps explain why Fortnite’s iOS future in Japan remains uncertain: Epic appears unwilling to relaunch under terms it believes undercut the very competition Japan’s rules were meant to encourage.
For now, the message from Epic is clear. Until Apple’s fee structure and reporting requirements change in a way Epic views as genuinely fair, Fortnite players on iPhone in Japan may be waiting longer than expected—even as legal and regulatory pressure on Apple continues to mount worldwide.
