Epic Games CEO criticises Apple, Google App Store ‘monopoly’. Tim Sweeney, CEO of Fortnite developer Epic Games, blamed Apple and Google for getting an “absolute monopoly” on app stores in a Friday interview with CNBC.
There aren’t many viable options for distributing mobile software outside the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store, and Sweeney chides both for taking a 30 percent fee from in-app purchases.
“They [Apple] are preventing an entire category of businesses and applications from being engulfed in their ecosystem by virtue of excluding competitors from each aspect of their business that they’re protecting,” Sweeney said.
Epic isn’t the first company to speak out against Apple and Google’s 30 percent fee. In March of last year, Spotify CEO Daniel Ek filed an unfair competition complaint against Apple with the European Commission, citing the fee as forcing them to artificially inflate the price of its Spotify Premium membership. Last July, Tinder introduced a default payment process into its Android app meant to bypass the Google Play Store fee.
[image: Epic Games]
