Facebook is said to be preparing a lawsuit against Apple for engaging in unfair business practices in the App Store. Apple would also have closed down their mobile operating system too much.
The Information writes that Facebook wants to sue Apple for several reasons. For instance, Facebook complains that Apple’s apps do not have to follow the same rules as other companies that want to offer their apps in the App Store. Facebook also considers it unfair that Apple does not allow other messaging apps to be set as default in iOS.
It is possible that Facebook will also include the compulsory use of the App Store for payments in apps in its lawsuit. Apple does not allow developers to offer payment or subscription options in their apps, unless the payment is handled through the App Store. Then Apple can claim a part of it.
Quarter of the smartphone market
Worldwide, Apple controls about a quarter of the entire smartphone market. In Europe, this is almost a third and in North America over half. Because apps for those smartphones can only be installed through the App Store, Apple has enormous power over that market.
Apple itself offers several applications that directly compete with the offerings of third parties, such as iMessage versus Facebook Messenger and other chat apps, Apple Music versus Spotify and Apple Arcade versus other game providers. In these cases, Apple does not have to give up a share for the use of the App Store. Or if it does, it ends up in the same pilo again through a roundabout route.
Lawsuit from Epic Games
This has led to great annoyance among other companies that want to offer their services on iPhones. That is why Epic Games sued Apple last summer for abuse of power. Epic thinks that the 30 percent that developers have to share on payments via the App Store is excessive, especially because there is no alternative.
In response to the outcry, Apple later decided to reduce these contributions to 15 percent, provided that the developer does not earn more than 1 million dollars in revenue. However, this did not make a difference for large companies such as Epic, Spotify and Facebook.
Tip: Apple messed up and proofs abuse of power with the App Store
7 hours ago
