On Twitter, Elon Musk has had a busy Friday. Musk has tweeted his support for Epic Games’ fight against Apple over App Store standards, after categorically denying that he has ever spoken to Apple CEO Tim Cook in response to a bizarre report suggesting he demanded to take over as the company’s CEO as part of an acquisition deal.
He claims that Apple’s app store payments represent a “de facto global tax on the Internet.” “Epic is the proper word.”
Epic is currently fighting Apple in court, claiming that Apple’s App Store rules, which allow Apple to take a 30% fee on certain App Store transactions, are unfair and anti-competitive.
CEO Tim Sweeney, who has been an outspoken opponent of Apple on Twitter, released his latest volley against the iPhone maker just 25 minutes after Musk’s message, possibly to take advantage of the tremendous focus Musk is bringing to the fight by tweeting about it to his 58.7 million followers.
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“All physical commodities will have a digital presence in the future, and Apple will tax and gatekeep global commerce,” Sweeney said. “Apple must be brought to a halt.”
The Apple Tax is significantly more harmful than most people think. They claim that it only pertains to digital items available on iOS, but in the future, all physical commodities will have a digital presence, and Apple will tax and regulate global trade. Apple must be put out of business.
A request for a response from Apple has gone unanswered. Sweeney’s tweet was pointed out by Epic to The Verge.
Epic went to court with Apple for much of May, and while we’re still waiting for a decision on the lawsuit, the trial itself revealed a lot of intriguing facts. Epic has also filed an antitrust lawsuit against Google over its Play Store restrictions, albeit it is going at a slower pace.