Apple is immersed in several lawsuits (some, as notorious as the one presented by Epic Games) as a consequence of his refusal to ‘loosen’ his control over app developers from its official store, the App Store.
Nevertheless, now one of those demands has just caused one of the first steps behind those of Cupertino, who would have agreed to give up some of their conditions in order to close an agreement with the plaintiffs, a large group of developers who, like Epic, began their confrontation with Apple because of the in-app payments.
Like the trial by Epic, it all started with the payment methods
This class action lawsuit was motivated by Apple’s prohibition of App Store developers from talking to their users about payment methods other than those of the App Store … although the agreement that both parties have reached, and which will now have to be ratified by the judge, It contemplates a whole series of agreements on the margin of that subject:
First, Apple will now allow companies to carry out this direct communication with their users to let them know of the existence of other payment methods, as long as users give their permission to receive these communications.
Manzana agree to increase the price levels that developers can offer up to 500 for subscriptions, in-app purchases, and paid apps (currently that limit is set to 100).
Manzana agrees to maintain its App Store Small Business Program (the initiative in which a recent reduction of commissions for small developers was framed) for at least the next three years.
Apple commits that, also for the next three years, App Store search results continue to be based on objective criteria such as score, download figures, comments and relevance of the text.
Apple will also maintain the existence of an appeal process against the refusal to include an app in the App Store, and undertakes to further clarify app review conceptss on their website.
Manzana will start to produce an annual transparency report with the most significant data on the app review process: number of apps withdrawn from the App Store, number of apps rejected for each stipulated reason, number of developer accounts deactivated, etc.
Finally, Apple will create an economic fund to help small developers. This measure, the details of which will not be known until later, is currently only intended for US developers.
The App Store, a basic pillar of Apple’s power
The App Store is a critical piece of Apple’s power over the tech industry, at the same time that it is also the source of multiple controversies about the way in which it uses said store to ‘short-tie’ the iOS application ecosystem.
Whether it is preventing the use of other pre-existing app stores to ensure the monopoly, or imposing their conditions to allow developers to continue to be present in the App Store itself, the attitude of those from Cupertino has done nothing but translate into multiple lawsuits and media clashes.
Despite such lawsuits, including his landmark lawsuit against Epic Games (who sued Apple for withdrawing its Fortnite game after implementing its own in-app payment methods… an issue that is still being settled in court), no one had been able to twist Apple’s hand in this field.
In fact, his only ‘step back’ up to now had been the aforementioned 30% commission reduction on the price of apps, when a few months ago he decided to cut it in half … only for small developers … only a couple of months after numerous large developers – Epic Games among them – created a coalition of companies opposed to their “practices monopolistic “.
However, we now know that a demand (and again, not the one presented by Epic, but by a diverse group of developers) will be the reason why Apple will agree to give up slightly in one of your previous requirements, also related to in-app payment methods.