“Apple is being investigated by a competition regulator in the Netherlands over the dominance of the App Store to determine if Apple has abused its position in the app marketplace, and has put out a call to developers asking for examples of potential abuses,” Malcolm Owen reports for AppleInsider.
“The Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets is opening up an investigation into Apple and the possibility of it having abused its position with the App Store. ACM advises it is doing so after receiving indications from ‘other app providers’ during a market study into app stores in general,” Owen reports. “The investigation aims to determine if Apple violated ‘the prohibition of abuse of dominance,’ such as by giving preferential treatment to its own apps over those produced by third-party developers.”
Owen reports, “While the investigation will be focusing on Apple at first, due to the ‘most detailed reports’ received by ACM relate to the App Store, but it has also opened up the possibility for the Google Play Store to receive similar scrutiny if warranted, based on reports provided to ACM by developers.
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Any supermakret we’ve ever been in, gives preferential treatment to its own branded products that almost always undercut the pricing of similar products. If customers don’t like Apple’s App Store, they are not forced to continue shopping there, they can choose another smartphone brand.
I will go back to Android where I belong
OMG. I am immediately boycotting tulips and wooden shoes.
Seriously though, it seems EU regulators do not have to make sense. They just get to impose fines. They are happy if companies like Spotify come out and cry ‘Apple abuse’ but are not above soliciting for stories. I think reasonable people would see that there are options other than iPhones to either buy, OR to develop apps for.
EU regulators are essentially looking for free fine money victims. Common sense and any real intelligence about the market go out the window.
Or the option of stores to populate their property with Apps. Or to sell their wares….
Getting real sick and tired of Europeans telling Americans how to do things. This is kind of why we, you know, did the whole Independence thing back in 1776. To get away from BS like this. Apple should just forget the EU market and let them have their crappy Android rip off phones.
Better yet, put America first by abandoning all its customers outside the good old USA… the ones that generate 60% of the company’s revenue. /s
What a moron!
“Any supermakret we’ve ever been in, gives preferential treatment to its own branded products that almost always undercut the pricing of similar products. If customers don’t like Apple’s App Store, they are not forced to continue shopping there, they can choose another smartphone brand.”
Sure, a supermarket may give preferential treatment to its own branded products, but that doesn’t mean that it should make 3rd party products in the store exclusive to that store if the 3rd party seller wants another supermarket to sell their wares.
In time I suspect all the International scrutiny will end up forcing Apple to allow 3rd party App stores in other countries even if none are ‘allowed’ in the USA.
“The investigation aims to determine if Apple violated ‘the prohibition of abuse of dominance,’ such as by giving preferential treatment to its own apps over those produced by third-party developers.”
How about the App Store guidline against “Duplicating Functionality”? This precludes improving existing functionalty and is anti-competitive.
How about exerting power over other’s property? In one case the user’s lawfully purchased device, or on the other hand the developer’s lawfully produced application. Apple neither owns the device, nor the application, just the store.
NEED ALTERNATE STORES!
I have read so many posts concerning the blogger lovers but this piece of writing isin fact a nice piece of writing, keep it up.