The European Commission has launched antitrust investigations against Apple due to strict policy in the App Store and Apple Pay. The reason for Spotify and Rakuten’s complaints was a 30% commission on sales in apps. Epic Games and Tinder’s developer, Match Group, have also joined.
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According to these companies, Apple limits the choice of users in favor of their own services. Besides, the manufacturer limits the use of the NFC chip in their devices to Apple Pay only. That's why other financial services cannot use NFC payments through their own apps.
Spotify claims that Apple uses the App Store to limit consumers' choices in favor of its own Apple Music service. Rakuten complains about uncompetitive conditions compared to Apple Books due to a 30-percent commission on books sold through the App Store.
Match Group spokesman said he was ready to negotiate with the Cupertinians:
"Apple is a partner, but also a dominant platform whose actions force the vast majority of consumers to pay more for third-party apps that Apple arbitrarily defines as 'digital services,'" a Match Group spokesperson said, adding that various industries, including dating, have to forfeit 30 percent on their in-app revenue to Apple. "We welcome the opportunity to discuss this with Apple and create an equitable distribution of fees across the entire App Store, as well as with interested parties in the EU and in the U.S."
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In the case of Match Group, Apple earns revenue from Tinder premium users, and Epic Games pays 30% of the profits earned from purchases of in-game items. However, some apps, such as Airbnb and Amazon Prime Video, have received special conditions under which they do not pay this commission.
Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney hinted at such Apple deals in his tweet and said he would not accept the special deal just for himself.
Here Apple speaks of a level playing field. To me, this means: All iOS developers are free to process payments directly, all users are free to install software from any source. In this endeavor, Epic won’t seek nor accept a special deal just for ourselves.https://t.co/A4sT1eMKMm
— Tim Sweeney (@TimSweeneyEpic) June 17, 2020
Other developers also have a concern about Apple policies. David Heinemeier Hansson, the CTO of Basecamp and the new Hey email service, called Apple "gangsters." According to David, Apple demanded to add a subscription to Hey through the App Store. Otherwise, his app would be removed from the App Store.
Here’s my dumb subscription story. In August, Apple reached out to say my app was going to be featured. A week later, App Review told me my app would be removed from the store permanently for violating Apple’s rules as my subscription ‘didn’t offer enough value for the money’.
— Benjamin Mayo (@bzamayo) June 16, 2020
Apple requires all developers to comply with strict business model guidelines.
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