Elon Musk sides with Epic, calling Apple’s App Store Fees a “De Facto Global Tax on the Internet”

Tesla CEO Elon Musk blasted Apple’s App Store fees on Twitter Friday, in a tweet that sides with Epic in the ongoing Epic v. Apple dispute. “Epic is right,” wrote Musk, before going on to call Apple’s ‌App Store‌ fees a “de facto global tax on the Internet.” Musk has clashed with Apple over the years due to employee poaching issues, but this is the first time he’s directly spoken out about Apple’s ‌App Store‌ policies. Tesla has not opted to have a paid app in the ‌App Store‌, so isn’t impacted by fees.

Musk has previously made veiled comments about ‌App Store‌ fees, but Friday’s criticisms were much more direct and pointed. During Tesla’s earnings call, Musk said that Tesla was planning to let other companies use its charger network because Tesla does not want to “create a walled garden” and use that to “bludgeon” competitors. Musk said that this is a tactic used by “some companies,” and then he fake coughed and said “Apple.”

As reported by Macrumors, Epic Games launched a major dispute with Apple in August 2020, defying the ‌App Store‌ rules and getting popular game Fortnite removed from the ‌App Store‌. After that, ‌Epic Games‌ launched a planned lawsuit to call out Apple’s ‌App Store‌ fees and restrictions. Apple and ‌Epic Games‌ went to trial earlier this year, and the tech gaming world is still anxiously awaiting the outcome. ‌Epic Games‌ is aiming for alternate app store or app loading options, while Apple wants to maintain the status quo.

Also via Twitter last Friday, Musk denied claims that he’d once asked to be the CEO of Apple. A new book says that Musk once called Cook about a potential Apple acquisition of Tesla. The book claims that Musk asked to be CEO of Apple, at which point Cook said “F– you” and hung up the phone. According to Musk, he has never spoken or written to Cook, and while there was one point where he requested a meeting with Cook about a potential acquisition, Musk says the Apple CEO refused to meet. For his part, Cook has also stated that he has never spoken with Musk.

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