Epic beats Apple in Australia: open iPhones and capped fees

The ruling forces Apple to open the iPhone to competing app marketplaces, website downloads and outside payment systems for anyone whose Apple Account region is Australia. Justice Jonathan Beach set out the orders in a 235-page decision this week, following his August 2025 finding that Apple had misused its market power over app distribution and in-app payments.

Here is what changes for Australian users and developers from next March:

• Other stores and websites: people can find, install and update apps from rival marketplaces and developers’ own sites, and Apple can’t charge for access or put obstacles in the way.
• Equal tools: developers get the software tools they need on substantially the same terms as App Store developers, wherever in the world they are based.
• Payment choice: developers can use other payment providers, even inside App Store apps, and can link out to cheaper checkout pages.
• No mandatory Apple option: Apple can’t make developers also offer its own in-app purchase system, report outside sales to Apple or let Apple audit them.
• Preinstalled stores allowed: Apple can’t stop third-party stores from coming preinstalled on iPhones, though it doesn’t have to list them in its own App Store.

The fee limits are the part developers will watch most closely. For purchases made through outside payment services or websites in apps that are distributed away from the App Store, Apple can’t charge anything at all.

For apps that stay in the App Store, Apple’s fee on digital purchases is capped at what it charges for physical goods and services, plus any genuine, reasonable extra costs Apple can show it has. Apple also can’t make outside distribution depend on developers selling the same content through Apple’s payment system.

That matters because of what happened in Europe. The Digital Markets Act forced Apple to allow alternative app stores with iOS 17.4 in 2024, but Apple kept charging developers and attaching conditions to those options. Critics called it malicious compliance. The Australian orders are written to block that kind of workaround, including per-developer fees for using outside stores. Apple also can’t demand transaction reports or a parallel Apple payment option, both of which it requires in Brazil and Japan.

Apple’s main argument has always been security, and the court didn’t throw that out. Apps installed from outside the App Store still need to pass an automated security or privacy scan and be notarized, which means checked and approved, by Apple or a qualified third party.

The limits are on how far Apple can go. It can’t add installation hurdles that are out of proportion to the risk, and any extra security steps for outside payments must be necessary, proportionate and explained to developers in advance. Apple can only remove or switch off apps installed elsewhere if they contain harmful content, pose a genuine security risk or break the law.

For ordinary users, the practical advice will be the same as on a computer: download from sources you trust, and be wary of anything that asks for card details outside a store you know.

Nothing changes on your phone today. The orders only cover accounts set to Australia, and the judge turned down Epic’s request to apply them worldwide.

The wider picture is more interesting. Fortnite returned to iPhones everywhere except Australia in May 2026. In the US, the way back was cleared by a district court ruling that Apple couldn’t collect fees on purchases made outside the App Store. Australia was the last holdout. The Epic Games Store launched on iPhones in the European Union in September 2024 and is set to come to Australia later.

Each ruling adds a new template for regulators. Australia’s version is tougher on fees and workarounds than Europe’s, which gives lawmakers and competition watchdogs elsewhere a ready-made model to point to. For you, the payoff could eventually be cheaper subscriptions when apps can sell outside Apple’s system, though any savings depend on whether developers pass them on.

Apple says it will ask the court to pause the orders and will appeal. In a statement, the company said it wants an outcome that respects its intellectual property and protects the safe experience customers expect from the App Store.

Epic chief executive Tim Sweeney called the decision a huge victory for consumers and developers. Apple was also ordered to pay 85% of Epic’s legal costs from the original trial, with costs from the later hearings still to be decided.

The calendar from here:

1. Now: Fortnite and other eligible Epic apps are back in the Australian App Store.
2. February 1 to February 15, 2027: Apple can apply, with evidence, for more time.
3. March 1, 2027, at noon Melbourne time: the new rules take effect unless delayed.
4. May 3, 2027: the latest date an approved extension can run to.