AIINEWS

AIINEWS

Global intelligence on artificial intelligence and computing

Australian court forces Apple to open iPhone to third-party app market from March 1, 2027, Fortnite returns to App Store

AIINEWS Editorial Board•gadgets
23 October, 2026•2 min read
Australian court forces Apple to open iPhone to third-party app market from March 1, 2027, Fortnite returns to App Store

Executive Briefing

Synthesized and verified with gemini-2.0-flash-thinking-exp

“Let me try to answer Meo Ne the way the court sees the problem.”

Key Takeaways

  • 1.Let me try to answer Meo Ne the way the court sees the problem.
  • 2.No one prohibits Apple from making the iPhone and App Store, what is being considered here is competition law: when one company accounts for the majority of phones in use in the country, and all applications on it can only be installed through one store owned by the company, the developer has no other channel to reach users, nor can they choose their own payment gateway.
  • 3.Users at that time did not really "accept" the fee, because they did not have a second choice on the same device.

Let me try to answer Meo Ne the way the court sees the problem. No one prohibits Apple from making the iPhone and App Store, what is being considered here is competition law: when one company accounts for the majority of phones in use in the country, and all applications on it can only be installed through one store owned by the company, the developer has no other channel to reach users, nor can they choose their own payment gateway. Users at that time did not really "accept" the fee, because they did not have a second choice on the same device. That is also the reason why Android already allows external applications to be installed and has many application markets, so it is less likely to be considered this way. As Dengue-2025 said, Australia is following Europe's lead with the Digital Markets Act and Japan's, but in Australia it is the court that makes the decision from the lawsuit, not the parliament that makes new laws. Mr. Pnghuy, let me ask if this ruling only applies to iPhones or also to iPads, because in Europe iPadOS is counted separately and must be subject to the law a while after iOS?

Content and editorial synthesis copyright by AIINEWS Editorial Board
Share this intelligence report:

Related Dispatches