Australian Court Orders Apple to Open iOS to Rival App Stores and Sideloading
Epic vs. Apple AU:Court Orders Alt App Stores,Sideloading and 3rd Party Payments
Australia's Federal Court has ruled that Apple violated the Competition and Consumer Act by blocking alternative app stores, sideloading, and third-party payments on iOS. The October 2026 judgment declares Apple's App Store exclusivity and in-app payment mandates illegal, ordering the company to allow rival stores, direct downloads, and external payment links for Australian users. Epic Games can also seek Fortnite's return to the App Store.
Since 6 November 2017, the first respondent has engaged in conduct in contravention of s 46(1) of the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth).
- isodev
That’s good news for people who enjoy the freedom of using the device they own in the way they want.
Having (alt store) presence in Australia, Brazil, EU and Japan is in fact more than enough for many indies - one can even begin to imagine ignoring the US as a region.
- Telaneo
> Subject to orders 12 and 13, the first respondent must do all things necessary (including procuring any act of any related corporation) to ensure that users of iOS devices can discover, obtain and update iOS apps, including alternative app stores, via distribution channels other than the App Store (including via direct download and alternative app stores) provided those iOS apps have undergone an automated scan for genuine security and/or privacy reasons and been notarised by Apple or a suitably qualified third party (Alternative Distribution Channels), and that app developers can distribute and update such iOS apps to such users via Alternative Distribution Channels, including but not limited to providing access to all tools and APIs (including software development kits):
So notarisation is still on the table? I won't be surprised to see Apple using that for all the loophole its worth.
That is, unless that's already covered by the ruling and I just didn't see it while skimming. Maybe the Alternative Distribution Channels is that, although it doesn't seem to be defined beyond 'a suitably qualified third party', which I'm sure Apple would love to say is no-one.
Still, the rest of it is very nice. The altstores for Apple have seemed kind of useless to me just through either costing money to use or needing to connect to a PC every so often, or needing to perform some other stupid dance. If we can get the F-Droid of iOS and an option to just download and install an IPA if I wan […]
- somerandom2407
Just a warning to any publishers who might want to force me into an alternative app store - I will stop using your app long before I'll install another app store.
I have a reasonable amount of confidence in Apple's due diligence around vetting apps on the app store. I can't think of another major brand that I would trust on this matter.
- andyferris
Seems like sideloaded apps will require notorisation from Apple and some form of automated security/privacy scanning (plus a system for authorising alt stores to do the same).
Payment fees for App Store apps seem to be affected in section 9(c) - I have trouble parsing it but it seem to eliminate any fee difference between purchasing physical goods through an app (currently 0% fee) and digital goods (currently 30% fee). There's a carve out for "reasonable costs" for hosting and distributing the digital goods - this could be sensible in certain scenarios (like Netflix asking Apple to a free CDN for them).
We'll see how much malicious compliance the above produces. Otherwise I'm feeling like a happy Aussie today :)
- mikeyanderson1
This is a massive win for independent Ai.
I want to run so my agents have a local sandbox on device.
- oliyoung
Huge decision, maybe toughest Apple's seen yet.
- steve_taylor
It's disappointing to see this is only for iPhone. Hopefully this is the first step towards having the right to deploy what we want on iPad, TV, Watch, and Vision Pro, and without requiring special enterprise entitlements to unlock access to certain features, which should be driven by user consent instead of Apple consent.
- shaboinkin
I wonder if this will result in a situation where Apple will find some other means of getting paid for all of the money they spend on producing the software that allows access to their hardware. How else do you develop apps for iOS, even if you create your own store, without directly using the software and tooling they provide?