Epic Games CEO slams Apple after planned tax on developers

By Ovunc Kutlu

ISTANBUL (AA) - American video game developer Epic Games founder and CEO slammed Apple on Wednesday after the tech company’s planned new tax regime on developers.

Tim Sweeney listed a series of arguments on X amid Apple’s plan to collect between 12% and 27% in tax from app developers that opt out of its App Store system.

"Apple has introduced an anticompetitive new 27% tax on web purchases. Apple has never done this before, and it kills price competition," he wrote on X. "Developers can't offer digital items more cheaply on the web after paying a third-party payment processor 3-6% and paying this new 27% Apple Tax."

Sweeney further argued that developers must be free to develop the best app they can, and no platform maker should have the power to force them to develop intentionally bad software to protect the platform maker’s unjust profit stream.

"The current trend has iOS becoming an increasingly awful psychological experiment on users, unchecked by competition as Google does the same with Android," he said.

Sweeney added that Epic Games will contest Apple's "bad-faith" compliance plan in court.

The developments came less than one day after the US Supreme Court rejected requests from Epic Games and Apple in the years-long lawsuit about App Store rules and practices.

Epic Games, the maker of the popular video game Fortnite, filed lawsuits against Apple and Google in 2020, claiming the tech firms are charging an "unlawful" 30% commission on their online in-app purchases.

Apple and Google removed Fortnite from their app stores in 2020 as the game was using its own payment system and avoided giving the two companies a share of sales.