Apple on Thursday announced settlement consisting of a number of changes coming to the App Store that, pending court approval, will resolve a class-action suit from U.S. developers.
Apple and the plaintiffs in the Cameron et al v. Apple Inc. developer suit reached an agreement that identifies seven key priorities shared by Apple and small developers, which has been submitted to the judge presiding over the case for her approval.
• In a validation of the App Store Small Business Program’s success, Apple and the developers agreed to maintain the program in its current structure for at least the next three years. Businesses earning less than $1 million annually will continue to benefit from the reduced commission, while larger developers pay the App Store’s standard commission on app purchases and in-app payments.
• App Store Search has always been about making it easy for users to find the apps they’re looking for. At the request of developers, Apple has agreed that its Search results will continue to be based on objective characteristics like downloads, star ratings, text relevance, and user behavior signals. The agreement will keep the current App Store Search system in place for at least the next three years.
• To give developers even more flexibility to reach their customers, Apple is also clarifying that developers can use communications, such as email, to share information about payment methods outside of their iOS app. As always, developers will not pay Apple a commission on any purchases taking place outside of their app or the App Store. Users must consent to the communication and have the right to opt out.
• Apple will also expand the number of price points available to developers for subscriptions, in-app purchases, and paid apps from fewer than 100 to more than 500. Developers will continue to set their own prices.
• Apple will maintain the option for developers to appeal the rejection of an app based on perceived unfair treatment, a process that continues to prove successful. Apple has agreed to add content to the App Review website to help developers understand how the appeals process works.
• Over the last several years, Apple has provided a great deal of new information about the App Store on apple.com. Apple agreed to create an annual transparency report based on that data, which will share meaningful statistics about the app review process, including the number of apps rejected for different reasons, the number of customer and developer accounts deactivated, objective data regarding search queries and results, and the number of apps removed from the App Store.
• Apple will also establish a fund to assist small U.S. developers, particularly as the world continues to suffer from the effects of COVID-19. Eligible developers must have earned $1 million or less through the U.S. storefront for all of their apps in every calendar year in which the developers had an account between June 4, 2015, and April 26, 2021 — encompassing 99 percent of developers in the US. Details will be available at a later date.
Tae Kim for Bloomberg Opinion:
When a powerful technology company wants everyone to know it has made large concessions in its business practices, it pays to look at the fine print. Sometimes the details don’t match up with the rhetoric. That seems to be the case regarding Apple Inc.’s class-action settlement with app developers this week.
Apple isn’t giving up much in this deal. For a company that earned roughly $22 billion in profit in its latest quarter, $100 million is nothing. And in this world of greater antitrust scrutiny, it is doubtful the company would be able to raise fees or change how it App Store search works even if it wanted to.
In terms of this settlement, it is a nice pay day for class-action lawyers and a blessing of the status quo. Not promising to raise fees? No real change to the anti-steering rule inside apps? If this is all Apple has to do to appease regulators and app developers, it should be thrilled.
MacDailyNews Take: Yup.
Let’s see if this is enough to take the Congressional heat off (words, perhaps exactly, we’d bet were uttered in Apple C-Suite just prior to the publication of this press release).
If the court approves, Apple will have “won” this settlement, that’s for sure. — MacDailyNews, August 26, 2021
Off topic: Now that Apple has shifted to the M1 chip fabricated by TSMC, TSMC is raising their prices by 20%. TSMC’s price hike comes on the heels of an increase of more than 10% since last fall.
Was Apple played?
I would think that Apple has long term locked in prices with TSMC, who is playing all the ‘smaller’ players like GM, Ford,…
True, it’s off topic. But I’ll bite. First, TSMC announced that it was raising prices by some chips by 20% but others by 10%. I don’t know yet but I expect Apple’s chips to be in the 10% category. And Apple has pretty serious negotiating power. TSMC’s hike in list prices may have a smaller effect on Apple. Second, there’s a global chip shortage right now; it isn’t just TSMC.
The iOS App Store monopoly is sustained.
Go buy that android crap and get the fuck out of here
Sure… grab your ear.