Spotify and Epic Games find an ally in Musk in their fight against Apple fees

Elon Musk’s declaration of war against Apple in a series of tweets posted on Monday gave Spotify Already Epic Gamesthe developer of “Fortnite,” a powerful ally in taking on the tech giant for its 30% App Store fees.

Musk criticized the fee Apple charges software developers for in-app purchases and posted a meme suggesting he was willing to “go to war” rather than pay it. Musk also suggested that Apple threatened to block Twitter from its app store, though he did not explain why.

Spotify has previously filed antitrust complaints against the maker of the iPhone in Europe and Epic Games sued Apple in the United States in 2020.

Since buying Twitter last month, Musk has unveiled plans to charge users $8 a month to be verified on the social network to increase profitability and avoid bankruptcy. A 30% cut on that would be a big dent in those plans.

The European Commission has been investigating whether Apple’s rules for app developers violate its rules after Spotify filed an antitrust case in 2019. Apple risks a fine of up to 10% of its global turnover if found guilty of breach EU antitrust rules.

Luke Suddards of investment research firm Finimize said Apple is “playing a dangerous game” by threatening to remove Twitter from its App Store. “If Twitter were to be kicked out, another lawsuit could develop. We saw Elon Musk use the courts effectively when he bought Twitter and it would not be a surprise if he followed the same strategy now.”

Earlier this month, Epic Games – developer of the “Fortnite” video game – asked a three-judge US federal appeals panel to set aside parts of a lower court antitrust ruling that heavily favored Apple and its gaming business. payments in the App Store.

Apple had said the commissions it earns help fund app reviews to ensure consumers aren’t exposed to fraudulent, pornographic or privacy-interfering apps.

“Apple continues to hurt its competitors and the impact is huge: on consumers, app developers, and now authors and publishers. If policy makers don’t take action, nothing will change,” the president tweeted last month. from Spotify, Daniel.

Musk, who was in the process of buying Twitter at the time, wrote “worrying” in response to Ek’s post.

Apple, Twitter and Spotify did not immediately respond to requests for comment.