Apple’s attempt to dismiss a lawsuit valued at nearly $1 billion was rejected on Friday, with a judge ruling it must face allegations it charged more than 1,500 UK-based developers unfair commission fees on purchases of apps and other content.
Sam Tobin and Martin Coulter for Reuters:
Sean Ennis, a competition law professor and economist, is spearheading the case, which was filed at London’s Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) last year and alleges Apple charged developers unfair commissions of up to 30%.
Apple has faced mounting pressure from regulators in the U.S. and Europe over the fees it charges third-party developers distributing apps via the App Store. The company says 85% of developers on its App Store do not pay any commission at all.
Apple’s lawyer Daniel Piccinin argued at a hearing in January that developers cannot have a claim in the UK unless they were charged on purchases made through the UK App Store. But Apple’s bid to throw out that part of the case was rejected by Judge Andrew Lenon in a written ruling on Friday.
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MacDailyNews Take: How much did it cost developers to have their apps burned onto CDs, boxed, shipped, displayed on store shelves prior to Apple remaking the world for the better for umpteenth time? Apple incurs costs to store, review, organize, surface, and distribute apps to over one billion users. — MacDailyNews, June 10, 2022
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So sick of MDN’s delusional and tired take and erroneous analogies. Apple collects exorbitant fees in relation to an app’s revenue and IN PERPETUITY. It’s absurd.
THERE IS NO “PLATFORM” AND ANY SUSTAINED DEVICE SALES WITHOUT SOFTWARE. Third party developers spend massive amounts of money developing software for Apple’s devices, take all of the risk, and several lose money. Most people would not buy an iPhone or a Mac if no third party software was available for them.
Apple can simply charge a listing fee for the app and then stop this nonsense on collecting commissions for subscriptions etc. or at least drastically reduce those commissions.
This is all coming crashing down it appears with Apple facing pressure all over the world to stop this nonsense.
It’s also interesting that the App Store was created despite Steve Jobs’ resistance to it. Anyone interested can search “Steve Jobs app store reluctance”.