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| Apple's critics form a coalition to challenge App Store fees |
Apple critics, such as Spotify and Epic Games, the developer of the popular Fortnite game, have joined a non-profit alliance seeking legal and regulatory action to challenge the company's app store practices. .
Apple charges 15% to 30% commission on apps that use the in-app payment system and sets comprehensive rules that apps must meet in order to be shown in the App Store. This is the only way for Apple consumers to download native apps on their device. For example: iPhone. These practices sparked criticism and official legal complaints from some developers.
The Fairness Alliance app (founded in Washington, capital of the United States and Brussels, capital of Belgium, a non-profit organization) announced its intent to encourage legislative changes to force Apple to make changes.
In addition to Epic Games, Spotify and Match, other members of the alliance include smaller companies such as Basecamp, Blix, Blockchain.com, Deezer and Tile, as well as European developers such as: (European Publishers Council) European Publishers Council, European News Media and Protonmail.
Consortium representative Sarah Maxwell (Sarah Maxwell), who campaigned for the financial technology firm Blockchain.com and Hillary Clinton (Hillary Clinton), said the organization was created because it "never makes a difference". . Hope aims to recruit more developers.
Maxwell said in an interview, "While it's great that there are great people like Epic and Spotify on the team, we're not just talking on their behalf."
Epic is suing Apple in the antitrust lawsuit in US federal court in California, and Spotify has filed an antitrust lawsuit against Apple in the European Union. Maxwell declined to comment on the amount and source of fair use funds raised by the coalition.
The organization formulated on Thursday the tenth of the "App Store Principles", recommended by the plan, in particular "not to require developers to pay costs or share unfair, inappropriate or discriminatory profits."