The company cited Section 3.1.1 of the App Store guidelines as ground for failing the app review process, a rule that stipulates app developers must use Apple's in-app payment system if they offer paid services. But Apple is known for implementing what has come to be known as the "Apple tax," the cut that Apple takes from transactions made through its App Store.Īpple takes up to a 30% cut of such transactions, and developers are required to use Apple's payment system rather than directing consumers toward their own apps or websites to make in-app purchases.Īside from the scrutiny Apple is facing from the European Commission, the company's App Store policies were in the spotlight again this week after David Heinemeier Hansson, CTO and cofounder of Basecamp, criticized Apple on Twitter for rejecting the second version of his company's paid email app, Hey. Smith did not mention Apple or Google by name. "In some cases they create a very high price or toll, in some cases 30% of all of your revenue has to go to the tollkeeper." "They impose requirements that increasingly say there's only one way to get onto our platform and that is to go through the gate that we ourselves have created," Smith said to Politico in reference to today's app stores. But Smith pointed out that anyone can reach consumers directly with their app or service on Windows without having to go through Microsoft's store. The Department of Justice sued Microsoft back in 1998 over concerns about whether the company's position as the purveyor of Windows gave it too much power in the industry. Smith acknowledged Microsoft's own history when it comes to antitrust concerns. "We need to ensure that Apple's rules do not distort competition in markets where Apple is competing with other app developers, for example with its music streaming service Apple Music or with Apple Books." "It appears that Apple obtained a 'gatekeeper' role when it comes to the distribution of apps and content to users of Apple's popular devices," Margrethe Vestager, executive vice president of the European Commission, said in a statement announcing the investigation. The comments come after the European Commission recently launched two antitrust investigations into Apple: one targeting the company's App Store policies and another examining Apple Pay.
"The time has come, whether we are talking about DC or Brussels, for a much more focused conversation about the nature of app stores, the rules that are being put in place, the prices and the tolls that are being extracted and whether there is really a justification in antitrust law for everything that has been created," Smith said during a livestreamed Politico event on Thursday. It often indicates a user profile.īrad Smith, Microsoft's president, is calling for regulators to take a closer look at how app stores are being governed.
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