App StoreSource: Joe Keller / iMore

What you need to know

  • The CEO of Epic Games has vocally criticized the App Store.
  • Tim Sweeney says the marketplace is an "absolute monopoly."
  • He says that Apple has "locked down and crippled the ecosystem."

The CEO of Epic Games, Tim Sweeney, has vocally criticized Apple's App Store as an "absolute monopoly" which has crippled the ecosystem.

As a new CNBC report notes:

Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney said that Apple's App Store is a "absolute monopoly" and Google's control of Android "essentially stifles competing stores" on CNBC's Squawk Alley on Friday, adding his voice to a chorus of detractors ahead of the CEOs testifying in Congress in the coming weeks.

In an interview with CNBC's Julia Boorstin Sweeney said:

"Apple has locked down and crippled the ecosystem by inventing an absolute monopoly on the distribution of software, on the monetization of software"

They are preventing an entire category of businesses and applications from being engulfed in their ecosystem by virtue of excluding competitors from each aspect of their business that they're protecting"

Sweeney was also highly critical of Google, who he also says stifles competition stores on its platform.

The report notes that one of Sweeney's biggest complaints is Apple and Google's 30% fee it takes from sales of apps and in-app purchases. Sweeney continued:

"If every developer could accept their own payments and avoid the 30% tax by Apple and Google we could pass the savings along to all our consumers and players would get a better deal on items. And you'd have economic competition"

Earlier this week Apple released a study noting how its own 30% App Store cut was no different to many other online marketplaces. Apple's 30% cut is likely to be a subject of an upcoming antitrust hearing featuring testimony from Tim Cook. That hearing was recently postponed, but an official rescheduled date has not been issued.