Australia’s Federal Court has ordered Apple to allow rival app stores, direct app downloads and alternative payment services on the iPhone. The changes take effect at noon Melbourne time on March 1, 2027.
Justice Beach handed down the orders on October 22, 2026, in Epic Games Inc v Apple Inc (No 2). They follow his August 2025 ruling that Apple misused its market power by restricting app distribution and in-app payments to its own channels.
The injunctions apply to the Australian App Store and to users whose Apple Account region is set to Australia. Developers can be based anywhere in the world, as long as they are members of the Apple Developer Program.
Apple must let Australian users install apps from outside the App Store
Apple has to let users find, download, install and update apps through competing app stores and direct downloads. It must give developers the tools and APIs they need to build for those channels on substantially the same terms as App Store developers, and it cannot charge fees or add conditions that discourage anyone from using them.
Apple also cannot stop competing app stores or other third-party apps from being preinstalled on the iPhone. It can remove or disable an app installed this way only for illicit or harmful content, a real security risk, or where the Online Safety Act 2021 requires it.
Apple keeps its security checks, and apps distributed outside the App Store must still pass an automated security and privacy scan and be notarized by Apple or a suitably qualified third party. Apple cannot add friction that is out of proportion to the actual security risk.
Apple does not have to host rival stores inside the App Store itself. The judge found that restriction does not break competition law once rival stores can be installed directly.
Developers can use their own payment services and link out from inside apps
Developers will be able to use payment methods other than Apple’s in-app purchase system, both in App Store apps and in apps distributed elsewhere. They can also add buttons and external links that point users to other ways to pay.
Apple is barred from requiring developers to do any of the following.
- Offer Apple’s in-app purchase system next to their own
- Report alternative transactions or accept audits of them
- Stop offering lower prices through other payment methods
- Avoid payment providers that act as the merchant of record
Apple’s fees are limited too, since it cannot charge anything on purchases made through alternative payment services or websites in apps distributed outside the App Store. For App Store apps, its fee is capped at what it charges on physical goods and services payments, plus any reasonable extra costs it actually incurs on digital purchases.
Any extra security requirements for alternative payments must be necessary and proportionate. Apple has to explain the risk to developers in writing before it imposes them.
Apple can ask for a delay, and the orders have no end date
Apple can apply between February 1 and February 15, 2027, with supporting evidence, to push the start date back to May 3, 2027. That delay would not touch the order requiring Apple to readmit Epic’s apps, including Fortnite, to the Australian App Store.
Epic told Reuters that Fortnite returns to the Australian App Store today. Apple told the same report that it plans to appeal and will ask the court to pause enforcement, citing its intellectual property rights and App Store security. The judge wrote that he will discuss with both sides whether a stay is needed if there is an appeal.
The injunctions carry no sunset clause, but Apple can apply to vary or discharge them if circumstances change materially, and Beach wrote, “No doubt my successor will deal with any such application sympathetically.”
Apple must also pay 85 percent of Epic’s costs up to and including the liability trial. Costs for the relief hearing are reserved.
Our Take
Apple has fought rival app stores under the European Union’s Digital Markets Act, opened the door to them in Japan with iOS 26.2, and now a court has ordered the same for Australia.
The notarization requirement stays, so the real argument will be over how much friction counts as proportionate to the security risk. For US readers, the order goes further than the external purchase options already allowed in the US App Store, because it covers rival stores and direct downloads as well as payments.
