In Antitrust Trial, Tim Cook Argues Apple Doesn’t Hurt App Makers

The chief executive of Apple, which was sued by the gaming company Epic, said his company had invested heavily on security and had lowered some fees in its App Store.

Tim Cook took the stand in a trial for the first time as Apple’s chief executive on Friday and defended his business from accusations that it hurt app makers to expand its profits, a major moment in Apple’s efforts to fend off growing scrutiny of its power. Mr. Cook spent the first part of Friday morning answering friendly questions from an Apple lawyer in its trial against Epic Games, creator of the popular game Fortnite. Epic is suing Apple for, in Epic’s view, creating and maintaining a monopoly with its App Store. For just over an hour, the Apple lawyer led Mr. Cook through a number of different areas of scrutiny that Apple had faced, enabling him to present Apple’s explanation on why it did business a certain way — and why it wasn’t harming developers. He testified that Apple faced lots of competition, that it invested considerably in the App Store to protect users, and that it had lowered its app-store fees for many developers.