Apple Dubs Meta A Hypocrite Over Latest Announcement As Tech Giants' Bitter Verbal Battle Charges On

Apple Inc AAPL has called out Meta Platforms Inc FB for charging creators close to 50% for all virtual sales in its metaverse.

What Happened: Earlier this week, Meta said it would take a 47.5% fee from creators selling virtual assets in its Horizon Worlds metaverse.  

“We think it’s a pretty competitive rate in the market,” Vivek Sharma, Meta’s vice president of Horizon, was quoted telling The Verge.

The fee to be levied on creators, however, is far above the market rate from leading virtual asset marketplaces today. Decentralized marketplace OpenSea charges 2.5% on each NFT sale, while its competitor Ethereum ETH/USD-based LooksRare charges 2% on each transaction.

Meta’s intent to take a 47.5% cut from transactions has also been called into question by technology giant Apple.

“Meta has repeatedly taken aim at Apple for charging developers a 30% commission for in-app purchases in the App Store — and have used small businesses and creators as a scapegoat at every turn,” said Apple spokesman Fred Sainz said in an email to MarketWatch.

See Also: Apple And Facebook Clashing Could Be A Major Tech Story Of 2022, Says Expert

“Now — Meta seeks to charge those same creators significantly more than any other platform. [Meta’s] announcement lays bare Meta’s hypocrisy. It goes to show that while they seek to use Apple’s platform for free, they happily take from the creators and small businesses that use their own.”

For context, in November, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg took issue with Apple charging developers a 30% fee for all in-app purchases on the App Store.

“As we build for the metaverse, we’re focused on unlocking opportunities for creators to make money from their work. The 30% fees that Apple takes on transactions make it harder to do that, so we’re updating our subscriptions product so now creators can earn more,” said Zuckerberg, at the time.

The two tech giants have engaged in a bitter war of words for some time, primarily over privacy-related changes introduced by Apple to its devices which threaten Facebook's revenue model.

Price Action: According to data from Benzinga Pro, Meta shares closed 2.24% on Thursday at a price of $210.18 per share.