Spotify and Epic Games, the creator of Fortnite, now have a major friend in their fight against the tech giant Apple over its 30% App Store fees as a result of Elon Musk’s declaration of war against Apple in a series of tweets published on Monday.
Apple charges software developers a fee for each in-app transaction made via their apps. Musk also indicated that Apple has threatened to exclude Twitter from its app store; however, he did not elaborate on the reason for this claim.
Both Spotify and Epic Games have already filed antitrust lawsuits against Apple in their respective regions. Spotify has done so in Europe, while Epic Games has done so in the United States.
Musk has revealed intentions to charge users $8 a month for being verified on the social media platform since he purchased Twitter a month ago. The goal of these plans is to increase Twitter’s profitability and prevent the company from going bankrupt. A reduction of thirty percent from that would put a significant hole in their goals.
Following the filing of an antitrust action against Apple by Spotify in 2019, the European Commission has been conducting an investigation to see whether or not Apple’s regulations for app developers violate its own standards.
If found guilty of violating EU antitrust regulations, Apple might be subject to a punishment equal to up to 10% of its total revenue worldwide.
When it threatened to remove Twitter from its App Store, Apple was “playing a hazardous game,” according to Luke Suddards, an analyst with the company Finimize, which provides investing analytics.
If Twitter were to be banned, there is a possibility that another case may be filed. We seen Elon Musk make successful use of the legal system in connection with the acquisition of Twitter; thus, it would not be surprising if he used the same method at this time.
Epic Games, the company that makes the popular video game “Fortnite,” filed an appeal with a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit earlier this month, requesting that portion of a lower court’s antitrust ruling that largely favoured Apple and its App Store payment business be overturned.
Apple has said that the commissions it receives help it pay evaluations of applications to guarantee that customers are not exposed to programmes that are fraudulent, pornographic, or that invade their privacy.
“Apple continues to disadvantage rivals, and the effect is enormous – on customers, app developers, and now writers and publishers as well,” “Without action from lawmakers, nothing will change,” Spotify CEO Daniel Ek said on Twitter the previous month.
In response to Ek’s message, Musk, who at the time was in the midst of finalising the purchase of Twitter, typed the word “concerning.”
However, there are experts who are afraid that engaging in conflict with Apple might cause more people to leave Twitter.
“While Musk attempts to rekindle the existing war between Apple and developers, all of this vitriol will drive Twitter users away,” said Paolo Pescatore, an analyst with PP Foresight.
“People are not going to give up their iPhones. They are used to signing up for a variety of social services, but they will only use one phone at a time,” he added.
Requests for comments were sent to Apple, Twitter, and Spotify; however, none of those companies immediately responded.
