Epic Games says Apple has twice rejected applications to create EU games store By Investing.com

Investing.com — Epic Games has had two applications to create a European store for its titles on Apple (NASDAQ:)’s operating systems rejected by the iPhone giant, the maker of popular game “Fortnite” said on Friday.

In a series of posts on the social media platform X, Epic Games said Apple had rebuffed its submission for its Epic Games Store “twice now.”

According to Epic, Apple said “the design and position” of Epic’s “Install” button was too similar to its “Get” button, while Epic’s “In-app purchases” label was too much like the “In-App Purchases” label in Apple’s App Store.

Epic said it was using the same naming conventions that are employed “across popular app stores on multiple platforms, and are following standard conventions for buttons” in apps on Apple’s iOS operating system.

“We’re just trying to build a store that mobile users can easily understand, and the disclosure of in-app purchases is a regulatory best practice followed by all stores nowadays,” Epic added.

Epic called Apple’s rejections “arbitrary,” noting that it has shared the matter with the European Commission. Barring any further delays, Epic said it is ready to launch the Epic Games Store and Fortnite in the European Union on iOS “in the next couple of months.”

Neither Apple nor the European Commission immediately responded to a request for comment, Reuters reported.

Earlier this year, Apple allowed Epic to put a game store on its iPhone and iPad devices in Europe, responding to pressure from EU regulators.

Even still, Epic and Apple have been enmeshed in an ongoing feud since 2020, when Apple kicked Fortnite off of its App Store because Epic failed to follow the tech titan’s payment rules in protest.

Apple, meanwhile, has proposed changes to its App Store to better comply with the Digital Markets Act, an EU law designed to allow users to more easily move between rival services.

Reuters contributed to this report.