Epic Games, Spotify, and Tile Form 'Coalition for App Fairness' to 'Fight Back' Against Apple
A range of companies, including Epic Games, Spotify, and Tile, have formed a new organization called the "Coalition for App Fairness," in an effort to highlight developer issues with Apple.
The organization describes itself as "an independent nonprofit organization founded by industry-leading companies to advocate for freedom of choice and fair competition across the app ecosystem." The coalition is based in Washington D.C. and Brussels, and aims to lead legal and regulatory changes with regards to what it says are three key issues; "anti-competitive policies," "30 percent app tax," and "no consumer freedom."
It sets out a ten-point plan on its website for changes it would like to see made. The points include the demands that "no developer should be required to use an app store exclusively," "every developer should always have access to app stores," "every developer should always have the right to communicate directly with its user through its app," "no app store owner or its platform should engage in self-preferencing its own apps or services," and "no developer should be required to pay unfair, unreasonable or discriminatory fees or revenue shares."
The group includes Epic Games, Spotify, Tile, Basecamp, Blix, Blockchain, Deezer, the European Publishers Council, Match, News Media Europe, Prepear, ProtonMail, and SkyDemon, many of whom have had major disagreements with Apple over various issues.
The group is actively lobbying other developers to join it, saying "together we will fight back against the monopolist control of the app ecosystem by Apple."
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Top Rated Comments
Let's list other companies that charge a similar fee for similar overhead: Google, Steam, Amazon, UberEats, Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo, GrubHub, eBay+PayPal, and the list goes on, I am sure.
Another example, "If consumers want to use a modern mobile device, Apple levies a tax that no one can avoid. No competition, no options, no recourse."
Unless the Apple tax now extends to the billions of Android phones out there, this is ridiculous on its face. While I content that Apple and it's ecosystem are superior (in large part due to the App Store and it's walled garden), to say that Android-based phones are not a modern mobile device and that Apple has no competition is being willfully ignorant, at best.
* Epic Games ('https://www.macrumors.com/guide/epic-games-vs-apple/')
* Spotify ('https://www.macrumors.com/2020/09/15/apple-one-unbundle-spotify-irreparable-harm/')
* Tile ('https://www.macrumors.com/2020/05/29/tile-writes-to-eu-accusing-apple-of-abuse-of-power/')
* Basecamp ('https://www.macrumors.com/2020/06/18/phil-schiller-apple-hey-decision-no-changes/')
* Blix ('https://www.macrumors.com/2020/02/05/bluemail-open-letter-to-developers/')
* Blockchain
* Deezer
* the European Publishers Council
* Match
* News Media Europe
* Prepear ('https://www.macrumors.com/2020/08/08/legal-action-against-company-with-pear-logo/')
* ProtonMail
* SkyDemon
For this, I will NEVER buy another EPIC product again, ever.