Amazon does not pay the 30% commission on in-app purchases for its Prime Video streaming app, for example. And Apple has loosened its grip for other companies. “Fortnite” players have spent more than $1.2bn in the App Store in the two years since it launched. The money at stake explains Epic’s willingness to do battle. The company immediately pulled the trigger on an antitrust suit in California and released a cheeky PR campaign calling on the public to #FreeFortnite. But Epic had already made plans for a fight. In return, Apple booted “Fortnite” off the store. In August 2020, Epic enabled “Fortnite” players on iPhones to make cheaper in-game purchases (such as V-Bucks, the game’s internal currency) if they paid directly instead of through Apple’s App Store, which takes a 30% cut. Why exactly are the two companies fighting? Epic now hopes American judges will loosen Apple’s iron grip on how apps are distributed on iPhones. On April 30th the European Commission took the preliminary view that Apple was in breach of competition rules, after Spotify, a music-streaming service, complained about the cut that Apple takes from purchases on its devices and its tight control over the App Store.
The terms to which developers must agree in order to sell their wares in the App Store on Apple’s iOS devices are a constant source of gripes. EPIC GAMES, the video-game developer behind the runaway success “Fortnite”, faces Apple in a blockbuster antitrust trial in America this week.
0 kommentar(er)
