Many developers (Spotify, Epic Games, Mozilla, etc.) vehemently criticize the conditions imposed by Apple under the guise of complying with the European Digital Markets Act. Thus, the opening of the App Store and the Safari browser to competition on iPhone is seen as lures by detractors.
The least we can say is that Apple’s recent announcements have made a lot of people react. As a reminder, the apple brand has indicated how it will comply with the Digital Markets Act (DMA). This is the new European Union legislation which aims to break the monopolies of digital giants and promote healthy competition in this sector.
In the case of Apple, this therefore leads to big changes on the iPhones which will arrive with iOS 17.4. The most significant development undoubtedly concerns the App Store which is opening up to competition and we should therefore see alternative stores arriving, potentially on the cloud gaming side.
Apple’s new rules
However, Apple has not kept things simple by opening its ecosystem in this way. The company indicates that, in Europe, application developers will have to choose between two options. Either they continue with the conditions of use that existed until then and nothing changes. Either they decide to seize this opportunity to no longer depend 100% on the App Store on iOS, but they must then accept other rules.
New rules which greatly annoy many players. The managers of Epic Games, Spotify and Mozilla have thus stepped up to denounce a form of hypocrisy in Apple’s speech. The main reason for their anger is called Core Technology Fee.
Behind this English name hides a nice jackpot that Apple could get its hands on. Indeed, this is a controversial commission. When an application exceeds one million downloads, its developer will have to pay 0.50 euros to Apple each time a user installs it for the first time over a period of 12 months. For apps with several millions, or even hundreds of millions of downloads, this can represent a staggering sum.
In return, developers who opt for these new conditions will see Apple’s commission on the App Store reduced (to between 10 and 17%), but the argument does not seem to convince.
“A farce” and “nonsense”
In response, Daniel Ek, the boss and founder of Spotify, issued a press release to sharply criticize Apple.
Under the false pretense of respect for the law and concessions, they have presented a new plan that is a complete and utter farce. In fact, because the old tax became unacceptable under the DMA, they created a new one claiming it complied with the law.
He attacks a company believing that “ the rules don’t apply to her » and even goes so far as to say that Apple has “ reaches a whole new level of arrogance“. Same story from the side Nikita Bier, founder of the social application Gas (bought in early 2023 by Discord). “ I will never launch an app in Europe», he says on Twitter/X after providing a numerical example.
Under the new App Store pricing structure for Europe, if you make $10 million in revenue, Apple’s share is $6.2 million per year.
Tim Sweeneyfounder and boss of Epic Games, evokes a “ malicious compliance” to describe “Apple’s plan to thwart Europe’s new Digital Markets Act“. He also uses the notion of “hot garbage» which we could translate non-literally into French as “toxic nonsense“.
Note, however, that Epic Games is using this new framework to announce the return ofFortniteon iPhone in Europe. The game was banned from the App Store for trying to circumvent the payment system imposed by Apple. However, it is possible that Epic could face a double commission. The developer indeed offers the Epic Games Store from which you can download the gameFortnite.
However, we imagine that the two services will each exceed one million downloads and that the famous Core Technology Fee will apply to both the Epic Games Store andFortnite.
“We are extremely disappointed”
For its part, Mozilla is also grinding its teeth. However, the changes made by Apple make it easier to change the default web browser to replace Safari on iPhone. And Firefox is one of the affected alternatives. Above all, alternative browsers can now operate to their full potential since they are no longer obliged to use the WebKit rendering engine previously imposed by Apple which limited their performance and functions.
However, Damiano DeMonte, spokesperson for Mozilla, is far from rejoicing, because this opening will only apply in Europe. This is what he explains toThe Verge. “We are still reviewing the technical details, but we are extremely disappointed[…] “. “This would force an independent browser like Firefox to create and maintain two separate implementations of the browser — a burden that Apple itself will not have to bear.», he adds.
Apple’s proposals fail to provide consumers with viable choices by making it as difficult as possible for others to provide competitive alternatives to Safari. This is another example of Apple creating barriers preventing true cross-browser competition on iOS.
The European Union on alert
In summary, many believe that Apple remains the only real winner in this matter. And this anger from developers could draw the attention of the European Union to remain vigilant. The European Commissioner for the Internal Market, Thierry Breton, affirmed that “firm measures” would be taken “if the solutions proposed are not good enough” with regard to the DMA.
The matter is therefore undoubtedly not over.