William Gallagher
Elon Musk has come out on the side of Epic Games, and declared in a pair of tweets that Apple's App Store is effectively taxing the internet.
Following claims that Tim Cook rejected his bid to become Apple CEO — and allegedly did so with a profanity-laden tirade — Tesla's Elon Musk has now tweeted his support for Apple's rival, Epic Games.
Apple app store fees are a de facto global tax on the Internet. Epic is right.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 30, 2021
Musk is referring to the trial earlier in 2021 between Epic Games, the developer of "Fortnite," and Apple. Epic claimed that Apple forced it off the App Store, where Apple argued that Epic itself revealed it had planned to be removed and begin legal proceedings.
It is already a long and drawn-out saga, and is not likely to be resolved soon. However, the case has also become a lightning rod for multiple and international accusations of anticompetitive actions by Apple with the App Store.
Musk expanded on his take in a follow-up tweet.
"Normally, competitive pressure would force Apple to lower fees, but Apple & Android have a duopoly on phones. When interface familiarity is taken into account, it's basically a monopoly," Musk said. "The effective 30% sales tax Apple charges is hidden from users or there would be an outcry."
Christine McKee
AppleInsider Staff
Chip Loder
Malcolm Owen
44 Comments
But hypocritical coming from someone who made a fortune with PayPal.
That's a rather ridiculous Hail Mary by Musk. Apple literally recommends companies sell to customers via the internet if they don't want to pay Apple a commission. Netflix went that route per subscriptions. So did Spotify. Amazon went that route for ebooks sales. And...Epic went that route per V-Bucks. The idea that Apple is taxing the internet has no basis in reality.
What a no sense. should Apple host servers, manage payments, manage db? Maybe they. Should provide free iCloud space? Apple now takes less than others, so why not attacking Microsoft, Sony?
Because no business that creates a store that has customers that vendors want to sell to should be allowed to make a profit.
What an a**hole. What’s the agenda here? I lost half the respect I had for Elon.