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Title    Netherlands Investigating Apple and Google for App Store Monopoly Abuse
Date    Saturday April 13 2019, @03:18PM
Author    martyb
Topic   
from the you-landed-on-Boardwalk dept.
https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=19/04/12/2336224

DECbot writes:

XDA Developers reports Google and Apple will be investigated by Netherlands authorities for their app store practices. From the XDA Developers article:

It is no secret that Google and Apple have monopolies on their respective platform's application marketplaces. Apple owns iOS' App Store and Google owns Android's Play Store. There are almost no other alternatives for third-party and indie developers to distribute their applications, which are sometimes their only source of income. That gives Apple and Google an edge to treat developers however they see fit, which may not be always for the best. The newest official report claims that The Netherlands Authority for Consumer and Markets (ACM) is going to investigate both of these marketplaces.

The important point to note is the investigation is not arguing it is wrong for Google or Apple to distribute their own apps on these market places but if they are manipulating the market place in a manner that gives them an unfair advantage against third party developers releasing similar apps on the same marketplace. As a reminder, both market places require a fee to join as a developer, a one time $25USD payment to Google and a yearly $99USD payment to Apple. Additionally, both stores then charge a 30% transaction fee on every purchase. This fee is assessed for both paid apps as well as in-app purchases. On top of that, Apple prevents apps in the App Store from linking to any websites where a transaction (one-time or subscription) could be processed outside of the app store. There are also rumors of Apple removing apps prior to or conjunction with a release of an Apple app that provides a similar function. Developers also note that Apple applications have access to the personal assistant API, allowing Siri to respond intelligently to owners requests with Apple apps. However, third party apps do not have access to the Siri API, they can't provide similar function with their apps, e.g. Siri can use iTunes to recognize a song or shop for music, while Spotify cannot because there is no API for Siri to pass information to their app.

The question is, with their ownership of the marketplace and platform, are they playing fairly with third party application developers releasing similar applications or are they using their dominance to purposefully disadvantage third party developers?

Fight between Apple and Spotify over 'fair play' on the App Store
ACM (Authority for Consumers & Markets) launches investigation into App Store abuse


Original Submission

Links

  1. "DECbot" - https://soylentnews.org/~DECbot/
  2. "XDA Developers" - https://www.xda-developers.com/netherlands-acm-investigating-app-store-play-store-dominance/
  3. "Fight between Apple and Spotify over 'fair play' on the App Store" - https://www.jupiterbroadcasting.com/129866/their-rules-your-choice-coder-radio-349/
  4. "ACM (Authority for Consumers & Markets) launches investigation into App Store abuse" - https://www.acm.nl/en/publications/acm-launches-investigation-abuse-dominance-apple-its-app-store
  5. "Original Submission" - https://soylentnews.org/submit.pl?op=viewsub&subid=32978

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printed from SoylentNews, Netherlands Investigating Apple and Google for App Store Monopoly Abuse on 2024-03-28 21:32:00