In a new interview with The Verge, Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney discussed the detrimental impact of Apple’s unchecked control of the app market exerted by monopolistic App Store policies. He strongly urged legislators to pass the Open App Markets Act to end Apple’s monopoly which is truly “strangling the digital economy.”
In 2020, Epic Games released an unauthorized update on Fortnite on iOS which allowed users to purchase directly from Epic and cut out App Store 30% commission for all in-app purchases completely. Since then Sweeney and Apple have been engaged in legal battles to seek permission for third-party app stores to distribute apps on iOS with their own payment systems.
Although Epic lost its case in the U.S., the developer now has his hopes set on the bipartisan bill “Open App Markets Act” which would open iOS to sideloading.
Politicians should fear Apple’s power and pass the Open App Markets Act says Epic
When questioned about Apple’s efforts to oppose the Open App Markets Act and stop Congress vote on it, Sweeney said that the “army of lobbyists and trade groups” hired by the Cupertino tech giant is busy feeding “false statements of the tradeoffs in the platform into the public discourse” and only time would tell if those influence the Congress vote or not.
He rejected the tech giant’s argument against sideloading and said that open macOS proved that iOS was also an incredibly secure operating system. Thus, there is no need for crippling the App Store review process.
We know, everybody knows, and every programmer at Apple knows that it’s the operating system kernel that provides the security. It prevents apps from accessing data and services they aren’t allowed to access. And that’s why macOS and iOS are incredibly secure operating systems.
He repeated the same allegations that tech giant’s monopolistic policies are harming the digital economy.
I think there’s something in antitrust enforcement for everybody, regardless of partisan political views. Apple’s monopoly, it truly is strangling the digital economy. They’re strangling the app market, they’re strangling the music market, they’re strangling the TV market. And this has implications in a lot of ways.
He also urged the legislators to pass the bill to protect free speech which would eventually be controlled by the tech giant with its arbitrary laws.
Apple in its own claims of its rights under the antitrust law said it has the right to make those sorts of policy decisions. And so every politician should fear the rise of corporate power that Apple is creating. And the risk to America is far, far, far greater, five orders of magnitude greater than the amount of the political donations they’re making.
