Epic Games announces new way for developers to bypass Apple Tax completely

Just a day after a major court ruling reaffirmed that Apple needs to allow app developers to point outside its ecosystem for payments and that it cannot collect fees on such purchases, Epic announced an alternative way for developers to collect payments.

Epic has announced that starting June 2025, all payments processed via the Epic Games Store will pay a zero percent revenue share to the company until they reach $1 million in revenue. After that, Epic's usual 88%-12% split will kick in.

It all started when Apple faced a setback in 2021 when the court ruled against it and said that it cannot restrict app developers from including buttons, external links, or other call-to-actions within their apps to direct customers to external payment systems. However, Apple did not make the necessary changes even in 2025, which compelled Epic to return to the court.

On April 30, 2025, Judge Yvonne Gonzalez-Rogers ruled in the District Court for the Northern District of California that Apple "willfully chose not to comply with this Court’s Injunction" and that it did so with "the express intent to create new anticompetitive barriers". The judge also ruled that Apple's Vice President of Finance, Alex Roman, lied under oath about implementing a 27% commission fee on purchases made outside of the App Store in January 2024. However, documents revealed that this decision was actually made in July 2023.

Now that external payments are coming, Epic is also finally bringing Fortnite to the U.S. App Store on iOS devices. The company also says that it will release a new feature that will allow developers to launch their own "webshops," which will be hosted on the Epic Games Store.

These webshops can offer players out-of-app purchases, as a more cost-effective alternative to in-app purchases, where Apple, Google, and others charge exorbitant fees. With new legal rulings in place, developers will be able to send players from games to make digital purchases from webshops on any platform that allows it, including iOS in the European Union and United States.

Players who purchase their items via Epic Webshops will also accrue 5% Epic Rewards on all purchases.