“They [Apple] they are preventing an entire category of companies and applications from being engulfed in their ecosystem by excluding competitors from every aspect of their business they are protecting, “Sweeney said.
Previously made epic Fortnite Available for Android devices not offering it in Google Play Store, but through an initiator in Fortnite website that downloaded the game. This allowed Epic to bypass Google’s 30 percent rate. But the download process was too complicated for many users, so Fortnite finally released on Google Play earlier this year. Sweeney said the company still plans to bring the Epic Games store to Android. “Google essentially intentionally suffocates competing stores by having barriers and obstructions in the user interface,” said Sweeney.
Epic is not the first company to speak out against Apple and Google’s 30 percent rate. In March last year, Spotify CEO Daniel Ek filed a complaint of unfair competition against Apple with the European Commission, citing the fee as forcing them to artificially inflate the price of their Spotify Premium membership. Last July, Tinder introduced a default payment process on its Android app to avoid the Google Play Store fee.
