Apple’s biggest critics are big mad about the new 27 percent App Store tax

  News, Rassegna Stampa
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Apple’s most outspoken critics aren’t thrilled with the company’s recent App Store changes. In a statement to The Verge, Spotify spokesperson Jeanne Moran says that the new 27 percent tax on alternative payment methods shows that Apple “will stop at nothing to protect the profits they exact on the backs of developers and consumers under their app store monopoly.”

Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney was one of the first to call out Apple’s changes as “anticompetitive,” adding the App Store policy “totally undermines” the court order. He also says it “kills price competition” by preventing developers from offering in-app purchases for a lower price. Not only do developers have to pay commissions to third-party payment processors but they also have to pay Apple.

It wasn’t long before other Apple critics responded. Spotify’s Moran says Apple’s latest move “is outrageous and flies in the face of the court’s efforts to enable greater competition and user choice.” Moran also states that the new 27 percent tax is “essentially a recreation of Apple’s fees” and calls on the European Commission to prevent similar policy changes in the EU.

The Coalition for App Fairness (CAF), a group founded by Spotify, Epic Games, Tile, and other companies seeking to loosen the grip of Apple and Google on the mobile app industry, also commented on the change. “Apple’s approach to ‘compliance’ with the District Court’s decision will not benefit developers and consumers,” Rick VanMeter, the executive director of the CAF, said in a statement. “These changes do nothing to enhance consumer choice” or to “lower prices for in-app purchases or inject competition into Apple’s walled garden.”

https://www.theverge.com/2024/1/18/24042892/apple-critics-27-percent-app-store-tax