'Epic is right': Elon Musk slams Apple's app store fees

|HT|

Tesla chief executive and billionaire Elon Musk supported the move of a gaming company challenging the removal of its application by Apple from its app store. Musk slammed the tech giant's app store fees, calling them a “global tax on the internet”.

"Apple app store fees are a de facto global tax on the Internet. Epic is right," Musk said in a tweet.

Apple app store fees are a de facto global tax on the Internet. Epic is right. — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 30, 2021

The issue came to focus after Epic Games, the maker of 'Fortnite', alleged that the iPhone maker has abused its dominance in the market for mobile apps. It even filed a lawsuit against Apple last year.

Epic broke Apple's rules when it introduced its own in-app payment system in 'Fortnite' to circumvent Apple's commissions. The tech giant subsequently removed the game from its app store.

Apple has so far not responded to the development, but the company has defended its app store practices both in court and to lawmakers in hearings.

"Actually, I like & use Apple products. They are just obviously overcharging with App Store. I mean 30% fees for doing almost zero incremental work is completely unreasonable. Epic wouldn’t bother processing their own payments if App Store fees were fair," he further said on Twitter.

"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," the Tesla CEO said while replying to a user on Twitter.

In a subsequent tweet, Musk said that the effective 30 per cent sales tax Apple charges is hidden from users or there would be an outcry.

(Except for the pictorial description, this story has not been edited by THE DEN staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)