Tim Sweeney Compares Epic Vs Apple Fight To Civil Rights Movements

The legal battle between Epic and Apple has become a staple of the internet the past few months, with things continuing to escalate after the original conflict between the two over Apple's in-game payment fee policies. Now it seems Epic CEO has upped the ante again with a controversial statement regarding the importance of this fight.

In a conversation during the two-day Dealbook event on November 18, when asked about the legal fight with Apple, Sweeney likened the proceedings to civil rights struggles in the US. "It’s everybody’s duty to fight. It’s not just an option that somebody’s lawyers might decide, but it’s actually our duty to fight that. If we had adhered to all of Apple’s terms and, you know, taken their 30% payment processing fees and passed the cost along to our customers, then that would be Epic colluding with Apple to restrain competition on iOS and to inflate prices for consumers," Sweeney said.

"So going along with Apple’s agreement is what is wrong. And that’s why Epic mounted a challenge to this, and you know you can hear of any, and [inaudible] to civil rights fights, where there were actual laws on the books, and the laws were wrong. And people disobeyed them, and it was not wrong to disobey them because to go along with them would be collusion to make them status quo."

This remark came after Apple's announcement that they will be reducing App Store commissions paid by devs to 15% on in-app purchases, rather than the standard 30%, for developers earning less than $1 million per year. This decision may be in response to investigations into Apple being conducted by Congress, the European Union, the Justice Department, and the Federal Trade Commission on antitrust grounds.

Sweeney told the Wall Street Journal that he thinks Apple is "hoping to remove enough critics that they can get away with their blockade on competition and 30% tax on most in-app purchases. But consumers will still pay inflated prices marked up by the Apple tax."

In its counter suit, Apple has stated that Epic is not some antitrust underdog, but rather a "multi-billion dollar enterprise that simply wants to pay nothing for the tremendous value it derives from the App Store." Currently, there isn't a native version of Fortnite available on iOS, but a GeForce Now version may make it viable for iOS users in the future. It remains to be seen how this fight will pan out.