Tim Cook faces harsh questions about the App Store from judge in Fortnite trial

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Tim Cook is seen through a window of the federal courthouse in San Francisco | Photo by Philip Pacheco/Getty Images

Apple called CEO Tim Cook to conclude three weeks of testimony in Epic v. Apple — and with the end of the trial approaching, Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers engaged Cook in a surprisingly tense exchange over Apple’s business model.

Rogers noted that most of Apple’s App Store revenue comes from games, and she asked Cook why developers can’t use other payment methods to sell in-app purchases, or at least tell users they can make those transactions elsewhere. “If they wanted to go and get a cheaper Battle Pass or V-Bucks, and they don’t know they’ve got that option, what is the problem with Apple giving them that option?” she asked.

“If we allowed people to link out like that, we would in essence give up our total return on our [intellectual...

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