As new UK competition act passes into law.
Image credit: Epic Games
Epic has announced it’s bringing Fortnite back to iOS devices in the UK at some point “in the second half of 2025” – and launching its Epic Games Store on the platform at the same time – as the UK’s Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act passes into law.
The new Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act gives the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) – the regulatory body that made headlines when it initially blocked Microsoft’s proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard – new powers to prevent tech giants from using their position to disadvantage competitors and consumers.
As per the government’s announcement, the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act could “give consumers the room to freely choose the services they use, or stop companies from withholding information consumers need to make good decisions.” It also gives the CMA powers “to intervene and direct a firm to change its behaviour to boost competition – whether that is to benefit people using smartphones or businesses dependent on cloud services.”
The act is somewhat reminiscent of the EU’s Digital Markets Act, which, among other things, requires big tech companies to open their mobile platforms up to app stores owned and operated by other companies. The EU’s act has been instrumental in enabling Epic to muscle its way back onto iOS after Apple revoked its Fortnite developer account in 2020, preventing the game from being distributed on its devices.
Following Apple’s decision – a move it made after Epic deliberately circumvented contractually mandated App Store payment mechanisms within its Fortnite iOS app, which would have allowed it to avoid Apple’s 30 percent platform fees – both parties have been embroiled in legal tussles in the US which has so far largely ruled in Apple’s favour.
However, Epic has been quick to take advantage of the EU’s Digital Markets Act, and earlier this year announced it would be launching an EU version of its Epic Games Store for iOS – and returning Fortnite to the platform – in 2024. And it’s now announced similar plans for the UK following the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act’s royal assent.
“Shoutout to the UK for passing a new competition law,” the official Fortnite X account posted. “Epic Games Store and Fortnite are coming to iOS in the UK in the second half of 2025”.
Epic’s announcement does, however, seem somewhat premature; with the act now law, the CMA must first determine which of the “most powerful global technology companies” are deemed to hold ‘strategic market status’, before it can decide which, if any, interventions will be placed on each of these firms – a decision the affected companies are able to appeal. The UK government has, however, previously suggested Strategic Market Status firms might be required to “allow users to access alternative app stores”, a stipulation Epic will doubtless be hoping is applied to Apple so its own iOS store plans can proceed.
Today’s announcement is presumably more intended to preemptively whip Epic’s young Fortnite audience into a frenzy should regulatory intervention flounder, but time will tell if it manages to hit its “second half of 2025” deadline in the UK.
