An Australian Federal Court judge has ordered Apple to let iPhone users with an Australian Apple Account install apps from rival app stores and websites. Justice Jonathan Beach’s orders also allow alternative in-app payments and links to outside payment pages. They take effect at noon Melbourne time on 1 March 2027. Apple says it will seek a stay and appeal.
The case is Epic Games Inc v Apple Inc (No 2) [2026] FCA 1552, and the orders are dated 22 October 2026. They follow the court’s 2025 liability ruling that Apple breached section 46 of the Competition and Consumer Act 2010.
Who the Apple Australia app store ruling covers
The orders apply to users whose Apple Account has its country or region set to Australia. Scope follows that account setting, not where the phone physically is. In the orders, the App Store means the Australian storefront only.
What changes for iPhone users and developers
Orders 3 to 5 and order 11 cover how apps reach the phone. In short, Apple loses its role as the only gatekeeper for Australian accounts.
- Rival stores and direct downloads: users can find, install and update iOS apps outside the App Store, including alternative app stores.
- Security checks stay: those apps must pass an automated security or privacy scan and be notarised by Apple or a suitably qualified third party.
- No blocking fees: Apple can’t impose fees or conditions likely to hinder alternative distribution.
- Pre-installed apps: Apple can’t prohibit pre-installation of third-party apps, including rival stores.
- Cheaper elsewhere: developers can offer lower prices through alternative channels.
- Limited removals: Apple may disable an outside app only for illicit, objectionable or harmful content, malware posing a genuine security risk, or Online Safety Act requirements.
- No excess friction: Apple can’t add hurdles out of proportion to the actual security risk.
- No retaliation: Apple can’t punish developers who use alternative distribution or payments.
Payments and fees
Orders 6 to 10 deal with payments. Apple can no longer require its own in-app purchase system (IAP) in App Store apps. Developers may use buttons or external links to send users to other payment methods. They can also charge less there.
Apple can’t demand transaction reporting or audit rights, or force developers to offer IAP alongside the alternative. Apps distributed outside the App Store pay no fee at all on non-IAP purchases. For App Store apps, any fee is capped. The ceiling is the fee that applies to in-app purchases of physical goods using a non-IAP method. Apple can add only its genuinely and reasonably incurred extra costs on top.
That goes further than Brazil and Japan. According to 9to5Mac, Apple requires transaction reporting there, and IAP must be offered alongside alternatives. The Australian orders bar both.
What Apple won
- Australia only: the judge rejected Epic’s bid for worldwide reach.
- Security gate: Apple keeps an automated scan plus notarisation for apps distributed outside the App Store.
- No hosting rivals: Apple doesn’t have to distribute competing app stores through its own App Store.
Apple told Reuters, via 9to5Mac, that it will fight the ruling:
We will request a stay and appeal the outcome to seek a resolution that respects our intellectual property and protects the safe, secure experience that consumers and developers expect from the App Store.
The safety framing deserves some skepticism. The court has already left Apple its security scan and notarisation step for outside apps. What’s really contested is Apple’s control over distribution and payments, and Apple’s own statement leads with intellectual property.
Fortnite and the costs bill
One order isn’t deferred to 2027. Order 2 requires Apple, on Epic’s written application, to admit or readmit Fortnite and other Epic apps to the Australian App Store. Epic says Fortnite is returning to the Australian App Store. MacRumors, citing Reuters, notes Australia was the only country left out when Fortnite returned worldwide in May 2026.
Apple must also pay 85% of Epic’s costs up to and including the liability trial. The judge trimmed that by 15% only because Epic lost on geographic scope and on its section 87 relief claim. Costs of the latest relief hearing are reserved for now.
What about Google and Android?
There are no new Play Store orders here. The judge didn’t address relief against Google because Epic’s separate case against it has settled. The court made orders in that proceeding on 6 March 2026. For context on Google’s own court-driven changes, see Google Play opening to third-party app stores.
A companion class-action judgment, [2026] FCA 1553, covers developer and user classes suing Apple and Google. In it, the judge concluded that in a counterfactual market, commission rates would likely have been materially lower than Apple and Google charged. He said he couldn’t say by how much. That judgment is procedural, so no damages or refunds have been ordered yet.
When will Australian users actually get this?
Not soon. Orders 3 to 11 start at noon Melbourne time on 1 March 2027. Apple can apply between 1 and 15 February 2027, with supporting evidence, to push that back. The court may then extend the start to noon on 3 May 2027. That extension isn’t automatic, because the court has to grant it.
A stay request and an appeal sit on top of that timeline. Australian iPhone owners may wait a long time for choices the court has already said they should have. Apple is fighting Epic elsewhere too, including its bid to overturn its US App Store contempt ruling.
Sources: Federal Court of Australia, Epic Games v Apple (No 2), Federal Court of Australia, Anthony v Apple (No 2), 9to5Mac, MacRumors
