Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney has turned up the dial to 11 on his anti-Apple rhetoric, calling the iPhone maker a “gangster-style business” which has concluded that “crime pays.”
He said that both Apple and Google are guilty of the same practices, including using scare tactics to make iPhone and Android users afraid to install the Epic Games Store …
Sweeney not an Apple fan
It would be fair to say that Sweeney isn’t Apple’s biggest fan. Back in 2021, Epic mostly lost a lawsuit against Apple. It scored one victory, the judge ruling that developers are allowed to direct users to alternative ways to pay for in-app purchases that would avoid the App Store’s 30% cut, but lost on all other issues.
To cite just a handful of examples, he has previously accused Apple of “buying off” politicians by making political donations; described its App Store policies as “illegal”; and said the company “acts in bad faith” and “lies.”
Apple and Google ‘gangster’ companies
In remarks reported by TechCrunch, Sweeney has gone even further while speaking at a tech conference.
“The sad truth is that Apple and Google are no longer good-faith, law-abiding companies,” Sweeney said. “They’re run, in many ways, as gangster-style businesses that will do anything they think they can get away with. If they think that the fine is going to be cheaper than the lost revenue from an illegal practice, they always continue the illegal practice and pay the fine” […]
“Crime pays for big tech companies,” he said. “Obviously, we shouldn’t expect that to change until enforcement becomes much, much more vigorous,” he told the audience.
He accused both Apple and Google of using scare tactics to dissuade smartphone owners from installing the Epic Games App Store, which would allow the company to sell apps and in-app content without the 30% cut taking by the two tech giants.
In Europe, the Epic Games Store is allowed thanks to new regulations, but Apple displays a warning to users who try to install it [and] this leads to drop-off rates of 50-60%, Sweeney said.
9to5Mac’s Take
Applying heat rather than light to a dispute rarely helps.
Leaving aside the inflammatory language, however, it does appear likely that Apple will be found guilty of bad-faith compliance with the judge’s ruling in the case by effectively continuing to charge the same commission even for sales not made though its own store. Both judges involved in the case have strongly implied that Apple lied about how and why it reached this decision.
As I’ve argued previously, Apple is making exactly the same mistake Epic did when it baited Apple.
What Epic Games did was dumb. It baited Apple, Apple responded, and Epic Games got hurt. FAFO. But Apple is making the exact same mistake here. It’s baiting lawmakers, lawmakers will respond, and Apple will get hurt.
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