Elon Musk Says ‘Epic Is Right,’ Takes Sides in Battle With Apple

Tesla Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk on Friday confirmed his assist for “Fortnite” maker Epic Games that has challenged Apple Inc’s charges on its App Store. “Apple app store fees are a de facto global tax on the Internet. Epic is right,” he stated in a tweet.

Apple is battling a lawsuit filed final yr by Epic Games, alleging that the iPhone maker has abused its dominance available in the market for cell apps. Epic broke Apple’s guidelines when it launched its personal in-app cost system in “Fortnite” to bypass Apple’s commissions. Apple, which has defended its App Store practices each in courtroom and to lawmakers in hearings, didn’t instantly reply to a Reuters request for remark. Musk late on Friday stated that although he likes utilizing Apple merchandise, the iPhone maker is “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 tweeted. Separately, Musk denied a report that he as soon as had a chat with Apple boss Tim Cook associated to a doable acquisition of the electrical carmaker and taking up because the iPhone maker’s CEO.

“There was a point where I requested to meet with Cook to talk about Apple buying Tesla. There were no conditions of acquisition proposed whatsoever. He refused to meet,” Musk stated in one other tweet.

On Tesla’s name with Wall Street analysts earlier this week, Musk took photographs at Apple, criticizing the corporate’s “walled garden” or its tightly managed tech ecosystem and its utilization of cobalt, a key mineral for making lithium-ion batteries.

“I don’t want to be CEO of anything,” Musk tweeted in response to a remark.