Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Apple Hit With Multibillion-Euro Lawsuit for 'Overcharging' App Store Users
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Documents – Consumer Competition Claims - EN
www.consumercompetitionclaims.com
Founded in 2022. Sole case Apple. Not fishy at all.
It’s where regulators screw it up for everyone because they cannot possibly grasp the millions of decisions and optimizations and trade offs that got us to this and when they intervene will unleash the unintended consequences of their intervention. If this were as simple as “take back money from bad corporation” than every App Store on every platform would undercut apple. But they are all pretty similar.
These interventions will ruin whole industries.
The alternative would be to switch to Android or dumb flip phone if you don't like Apple's prices.
I have no idea, because I don’t play games. I would assume there are games which can be played on both platforms.
Well isn't that good for you and your customers. Now, what about the customers you could have had, but who never even saw your app, because the mess of "free", ad-supported apps have driven them to pretty much stop even opening the app store?
As usual, with the page 1 hot takes, it's difficult to have a discussion with any kind of nuance. But personally, while I still choose to buy the most secure, most well supported phone on the market, nearly every third-party app I use is something I discovered the better part of a decade ago. These are the hidden costs of the inevitable market consolidation we see in the digital space, and this is exactly the kind of problem that legislation seeking to break the dominance of the entrenched players has the potential to address.
Yes, just as there are apps that can be used on iOS, Android, and other platforms.
Smaller app developers are the real App Store winners. It's essentially a SaaS service for distribution and payments for 15% cut of the retail price of your app (30% if you're really successful). To replicate this themselves would be a huge burden. To start the credit card companies will take a huge cut on small purchases. Your $0.99 app would likely cost more than 30% just to process that payment. Add in customer service and it's much higher. Plus you'd have to build a distribution site, run it and maintain it. 30% starts to sound really, really good.
It's the big game shops that see this as a threat to their business, e.g. EA. They make $100's of millions of dollars a year from apps. The cost of distribution and sales for them is a pittance and they hate that they have to pay Apple.
People are really bad at analogies.
If Taco Bell was allowed to sell Big Macs, McDonalds def would get a cut!
How small is small? I hope I’m not breaking non disclosure here, but at a place I worked at, their returns were high using stripe than apple’s payment system.
I feel it makes sense to use Apple’s payment system if the business finds it too costly to build an integration with a provider, but it doesn’t scale super well. Also, if you’re happy giving payment stats to Apple, then it’s ok. Generally the larger you get, the less you want to cede control.
Console makers have a "monopoly" on distribution. Physical copies require a license fee to the console developer. If I purchase a game on Xbox, I have to repurchase it if I want to play it on another console.
If legislators want to require all developers to allow users to use their purchased apps or games on all supported platforms, then they can tackle that issue. Some developers allow users to use their software on any platform, others don't. The point is that this is currently a legal and valid business practice.
How is that any sort of argument? There are plenty of platform specific apps across all platforms and there always, always has been. Unless you want to demand and regulate all devs must code for all conceivable platforms? Seems a little bit ridiculous.
Music corporations take 80% of the profits and often give nothing to musicians. Never get fined.
???
Entertainment agencies take 10% of artist payments and do almost no work. Never get fined.
???
Crypto companies are doing pump and dumps every day and stealing billions of dollars from people all around the world. Never get fined.
???
Police waste stupid amount of money arresting innocent people. Never get fined.
???
Intelligence agencies waste stupid amount of money and never stop any terrorist attack and always help criminals and oligarchs hide money. Never get in trouble.
???
Farmers get cheated badly by supermarket monopolies. Supermarket corporations never fined.
???
Fossil fuel companies have politicians in the pocket and hold back clean energy. Never get fined.
???
But when Apple (and some other software companies) give dev tools, free operating systems, free marketing, free hosting and brought down the cost of making and shipping software so much….they get in trouble for it?
???
If app developers had to do it all themselves the costs would be higher or the same. Even worse if they have to ship discs to retail stores. Remember that?
???
Entertainment agencies take 10% of artist payments and do almost no work. Never get fined.
???
Crypto companies are doing pump and dumps every day and stealing billions of dollars from people all around the world. Never get fined.
???
Police waste stupid amount of money arresting innocent people. Never get fined.
???
Intelligence agencies waste stupid amount of money and never stop any terrorist attack and always help criminals and oligarchs hide money. Never get in trouble.
???
Farmers get cheated badly by supermarket monopolies. Supermarket corporations never fined.
???
Fossil fuel companies have politicians in the pocket and hold back clean energy. Never get fined.
???
But when Apple (and some other software companies) give dev tools, free operating systems, free marketing, free hosting and brought down the cost of making and shipping software so much….they get in trouble for it?
???
If app developers had to do it all themselves the costs would be higher or the same. Even worse if they have to ship discs to retail stores. Remember that?
I was just questioning the argument that was made.
Now, regulating exclusives away might be an interesting idea, now you’ve said it…
Fair enough.
Although, you said you didn't play games - I'm sure exclusive titles only apply to that industry regarding computer software. I can't think of any serious or non gaming software that is exclusive to a platform due to some sort of legal clause. Can you?
Utilities are localized monopolies. Apple is not a utility. You have other options. Use them if you don’t want to use apple products.
No you can get equivalent apps. Like you can’t buy a new Honda in a Toyota dealership, yet both products perform an equivalent function. But I didn't have to explain that, as it’s all part of verbal sparring.