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Apple’s critics forge new alliance

by on25 September 2020


Coalition against App Store antics

A rebel alliance made up of Spotify, Match Group and “Fortnite” creator Epic Games who oppose to Apple’s App store antics has been formed.

The nonprofit group plans to advocate legal and regulatory action to challenge the iPhone maker’s App Store practices.

For those who don’t know Apple charges a commission of between 15-30 percent for apps that use its in-app payment system and sets out extensive rules for apps in its App Store, which is the only way Apple allows consumers to download native apps to devices such as the iPhone. Those practices have drawn criticism and formal legal complaints from some developers.

Dubbed the Coalition for App Fairness, structured as a nonprofit based in Washington DC and Brussels, it plans to advocate legal changes that would force Apple to change.

Other members include smaller firms such as Basecamp, Blix, Blockchain.com, Deezer, and Tile, along with developers from Europe including the European Publishers Council, News Media Europe and Protonmail.

Epic is suing Apple over antitrust claims in a US federal court in California, while Spotify has filed an antitrust complaint against Apple in the European Union. Sarah Maxwell, a representative for the group, declined to comment on how much funding the Coalition for App Fairness has raised and from whom.

Mike Sax, founder of The App Association, a group sponsored by Apple, said in a statement that the new coalition’s “big brands do not speak for the thousands of app makers that are the foundation of the app economy”.

Last modified on 25 September 2020
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