Musk against Apple: App Store fees = Tax on the Internet?

Elon Musk is sure that it’s true! The founder and CEO of SpaceX and Tesla supported Epic in their lawsuit against Apple, as they consider App Store fees anticompetitive. In his tweet, he notes that “Epic is right” and says that the iPhone store fees are actually a global tax on the Internet.

What’s Going on?

You may wonder what the reason for this “Elon VS Apple” situation is. Why did Epic together with other companies and even Musk become against Apple?

The point is in a recent legal battle between the creator of Fortnite (Epic) and the App Store (Apple). The latter takes a 15-30% fee from all in-app purchases. Sure, applications created and sold by Apple itself are not obliged to pay that fee, which causes a stir among developers.

Imagine that you have introduced your app in the App Store, where Apple products already have advantages (at least they need less marketing, as everyone knows Apple!). So, you spend lots of money and can’t sleep at night cause you’re looking for new ways of promotion every minute. You earn your first dollar and… have to pay 30% to Apple that doesn’t waste a cent for marketing! It’s just unfair!

Fortnite developers had similar thoughts, that’s why they decided to introduce their own system for in-app purchases. In summer 2020, the company stopped paying fees to the iPhone store. So, Apple just booted Fortnite from the store.

Fighting Monopolies

It’s not only Elon Musk who is against the Apple store’s approach. Many developers agree that it’s a monopoly. Though neither Tesla nor SpaceX depends on the App Store and their fees, the active position of Elon Musk may bring the issue closer to the publicity. We all remember his tweets about cryptos (and that were not some official statements!) and the impact caused to the financial market. 

Maybe “Epic is right” won’t be just a phrase from the web, maybe it’s the birth of the world without monopolies but with fair competition.