Epic Games wins partial victory in Australian court against Google and
Apple
[August 13, 2025] By
ROD McGUIRK
MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Epic Games, the company behind the popular
online game Fortnite, on Tuesday won a partial victory in an Australian
court. The case was brought by U.S. billionaire chief executive Tim
Sweeney, who claimed that Google and Apple engaged in anti-competitive
conduct in running their app stores.
Federal Court Justice Jonathan Beach upheld key parts of Epic’s claim
that the tech giants breached Australian competition laws by misusing
their market power against app developers and using restrictive trade
practices.
Google and Apple ’s dominance of the app market had the effect of
substantially lessening competition and breached Australian law, Beach
found.
But the judge rejected some of Epic’s claim including that Google and
Apple engaged in unconscionable conduct as defined by Australian law.
Sweeney is also challenging Google and Apple's dominance in the app
markets through the courts in the United States and Britain.
The litigation began in August 2020 when Apple’s App Store and Google’s
Play Store expelled Fortnite because Epic installed a direct payment
feature in the extraordinarily popular game.
The court ruled both companies pressured app developers including Epic
through contracts and technology to sell their products through the two
dominant app stores.
Epic said that the ruling will allow its Epic Games Store and Fortnite
to come to Apple's operating system iOS in Australia.
“An Australian court just found that Apple and Google abuse their
control over app distribution and in-app payments to limit competition,”
Epic said in a statement.
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 “There are 2,000+ pages of findings
that we’ll need to dig into to fully understand the details," the
statement added. "This is a WIN for developers and consumers in
Australia!”
Apple said the company “faces fierce competition in
every market where we operate.”
“We welcome the Australian court’s rejection of some of Epic’s
claims, however, we strongly disagree with the Court’s ruling on
others,” Apple said in a statement.
Google said it would review the judgment. Google and Apple could
potentially appeal the ruling before the Federal Court full bench.
“We disagree with the court’s characterisation of our billing
policies and practices, as well as its findings regarding some of
our historical partnerships, which were all shaped in a fiercely
competitive mobile landscape on behalf of users and developers,” a
Google statement said.
Beach has yet to release a 952-page judgment on Epic’s case against
Apple or his 914-page judgment on the case against Google.
The judge gave an oral summary of his findings during a 90-minute
hearing Tuesday.
Lawyers will return to court on a date yet to be set to argue what
Epic is entitled to in terms of damages.
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