Apple faces $1 bln UK lawsuit by apps developers over app store fees
Apple faces $1 bln UK lawsuit by apps developers over app store fees
www.reuters.com
Apple faces $1 bln UK lawsuit by apps developers over app store fees
That's still only 0.034% of its market cap, it would simply be a slap on the wrist even if they lose.
Not to mention, It isn't a given that they win.
I ANAL 😏 but in order to claim their fees are excessive, I'd expect that the plaintiffs would need to show that they are substantially higher than fees in other circumstances. I don't think 15-20% is unusual for other software stores, including the google play store which has a number of competitors on android, or steam on PC which also has a number of competitors on PC.
hehe anal
Given that this is about UK legislation, it really should be ANAS as we have solicitors here.
This seems to be the standard that all store fronts use. With maybe an exception on epic who purposefully went lower than the industry norm to try and excite game publishers to their storefront.
Just from some cursory googling - google and Apple are right in line. 30% with some drops into the 15% mark after time has passed in case of subscription payments.
Edit: have not been following this story but it seems like kind of an uphill battle. We know what the argument will be - it’s x percent but you’re using our product and infrastructure and we have to invest people and resources to verifying apps getting published.
Feels like the law suits that involve “allowing multiple app stores” had a higher chance of succeeding (though I have no idea the status of those lawsuits so maybe that’s already off the table)
If Apple wanted, they could allow developers to supply their own infrastructure. It would cost a lot less than 30% of the developer's gross revenue. Apple could also charge, say, ten thousand dollars per hour for the time the review team spends checking the app. That would also work out to astronomically less than 30% of the developer's gross revenue.
The App Store is a great service and Apple is entitled to collect a fee. But the amount they're charging is excessive. In a fair market with proper competition they could never get away with charging that much.
Not a lawyer, but I suspect where Apple could land in hot water is apparently 85% of iPhone App developers are only paying $100 per year. They don't pay any commission to Apple at all, because the apps collect revenue via some other source.
So Apple is essentially singling out 15% of developers and forcing them to pay a extraordinarily more than what most of their competitors are paying.
I expect it will also hurt Apple's case they are directly competing with millions of developers. You want to sell a note taking app for example? You're competing directly with Apple. And Apple has various unfair advantages.
But that’s not true. And your response to this in the other comment chain was three paragraphs on sms rates. Seems like you believe somehow Apple is unique in this regard.
Isn't the argument less about that but but more that theres no other way to distribute on iOS outside the store. On android, windows, etc you lose visibility not being on the Play Store/Steam/etc but you can use an alternate market that takes less of a cut (Epic store) or self publish (side loading).
Widespread problems aren't better. These fees are excessive everywhere they appear.