Apple announced its plan to comply with the Digital Markets Act (DMA) in Europe yesterday which will allow third-party app stores. However, the Coalition for App Fairness believes Apple’s approach will be found illegal and says the iPhone maker’s plan is a “shameless insult to the European Commission and the millions of European consumers they represent…”
Years in the making, the European Commission has forced Apple to open iOS to third-party app stores (among other changes) in the EU with the DMA legislation that goes into effect in March.
However, the specifics of Apple’s plan are under fire – like requiring commissions to be paid for apps sold outside Apple’s App Store via a new “Core Technology Fee” per install, a €1,000,000 ‘letter of credit’ to open an app store, and more difficult requirements for developers.
The Coalition for App Fairness (CAF) has interpreted Apple’s decisions as the company having “no intention to comply with the DMA.”
And as my colleague Ben wrote this morning, Apple’s plan is no doubt paving the way for more litigation:
Top comment by The Insane World
These developers won’t be happy unless they literally get access to the platform at literally zero cost to them. You can’t force a company to give you access to their IP at zero cost. Even the DMA outlined as such. The ruling in the US said the same thing. Epic wants free access to the APOs and then wants to generate revenue with their own App Store. They aren’t going to reduce cost to consumers. It was all a ploy. Spotify has a business model that isn’t sustainable. This is just a distraction and justification for their bad business.
A statement from the CAF executive director Rick VanMeter following yesterday’s news says that Apple’s plan “violates the law” and “does not achieve the DMA’s goal to increase competition and fairness in the digital market – it is not fair, reasonable, nor non-discriminatory.”
Going further, he says Apple developers have to decide between the “terrible status quo” or “a new convoluted set of terms that are bad for developers and consumers alike.”
In closing, he says that “Apple’s ‘plan’ is a shameless insult to the European Commission and the millions of European consumers they represent – it must not stand and should be rejected by the Commission.”
Here’s the full statement:
“Apple clearly has no intention to comply with the DMA. Apple is introducing new fees on direct downloads and payments they do nothing to process, which violates the law. This plan does not achieve the DMA’s goal to increase competition and fairness in the digital market – it is not fair, reasonable, nor non-discriminatory,” said Rick VanMeter, Executive Director of the Coalition for App Fairness. “Apple’s proposal forces developers to choose between two anticompetitive and illegal options. Either stick with the terrible status quo or opt into a new convoluted set of terms that are bad for developers and consumers alike. This is yet another attempt to circumvent regulation, the likes of which we’ve seen in the United States, the Netherlands and South Korea. Apple’s ‘plan’ is a shameless insult to the European Commission and the millions of European consumers they represent – it must not stand and should be rejected by the Commission.”
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