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Judge Rules Developer's Lawsuit Can Proceed Against Apple

Andrew Orr ·

A judge ruled that a lawsuit from Kosta Eleftheriou can proceed against Apple. Half of the claims can move forward and Mr. Eleftheriou can amend the other claims that were dismissed.

In his own lawsuit against Apple, Eleftheriou aims to document what he alleges were an unfair series of rejections for his Apple Watch keyboard app, FlickType, from the App Store. At the time, Apple told Eleftheriou his app offered a “poor user experience” and noted full keyboard apps were not allowed for Apple Watch. But, he says, it then allowed competitor keyboard apps as well as third-party apps (like Nano for Reddit, Chirp for Twitter, WatchChat for WhatsApp and Lens for Instagram) to launch on the App Store.

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Apple's Policies Force Tumblr to Ban Certain Tags for iOS Users

Andrew Orr ·

Tumblr has been banning a host of tags from its iOS app in an effort to comply with Apple’s app review policies.

Some of the banned tags make sense for a platform trying to scrub itself of sensitive content — “porn,” “drugs” and “sex” are banned, for instance. Others are incomprehensible (or troubling if you think about them for too long), like the aforementioned “Tony the Tiger” and “Eugene Levy.” Even tags with the numbers 69 and 420 are banned.

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Oculus VR Wins Most Popular App on Christmas Day 2021

Andrew Orr ·

Meta’s Oculus app topped the charts for the App Store on Christmas, likely reflecting the popularity of the VR headset as a gift. Meta doesn’t disclose how many headsets it sells, however.

Today’s VR headsets from Meta are nowhere near as powerful or capable enough to enable Zuckerberg’s ultimate vision for the metaverse. But they can give you a taste of what’s possible. On top of that, Meta now has a lot more customers, giving it a chance to gather more data about how normal folks use virtual reality and tailor experiences to those tastes. If Zuckerberg’s thesis about the metaverse is correct, then this year’s new crop of VR users will help inform Meta, and other companies working on similar technologies, to decide on what kind of experiences to make next.

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Dutch Regulator to Force Apple to Change App Store Policy for Dating Apps

Jeff Butts ·

It’s interesting that the focus of this order is on dating apps, when other assaults on Apple’s App Store payment policies approach different genres, or all apps as a whole. The decision comes on the heels of the tech giant agreeing to change its payment policies for “reader” apps and the ongoing Apple v. Epic dispute. It could be one more nail in the coffin of Apple’s monopoly on collecting payment for apps. The Cupertino-based company has, of course, appealed the decision.

Some app providers are dependent on Apple’s App Store, and Apple takes advantage of that dependency. Apple has special responsibilities because of its dominant position. That is why Apple needs to take seriously the interests of app providers too, and set reasonable conditions. That is what we are forcing Apple to do with this order.

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Does Apple Have Too Much Control Over Your iPhone?

Andrew Orr ·

Recode is working on a series that examines Big Tech and antitrust. Sara Morrison covers Apple in the first installment, asking “How much control should Apple have over your iPhone?” One paragraph in particular grabbed my attention:

In her book Monopolies Suck, antitrust expert Sally Hubbard described Apple as a “warm and fuzzy monopolist” when compared to Facebook, Google, and Amazon, the other three companies in the so-called Big Four that have been accused of being too big. It doesn’t quite have the negative public perception that its three peers have, and the effects of its exclusive control over mobile apps on its consumers aren’t as obvious.

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France Seeks Removal of 'Wish' From App Stores, Search Engines

Andrew Orr ·

The French administration wants app stores and search engines to remove Wish after an investigation of its products. They found that many of the products listed in Wish don’t meet European standards.

When Wish is notified that it is selling a dangerous good, those products are removed from the marketplace within 24 hours as expected. And yet, “in most cases, those products remain available under a different name, and sometimes even from the same seller. The company doesn’t keep any log related to transactions of non-compliant and dangerous products,” France’s Ministry of the Economy says in its statement.

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Google Follows Apple And Slashes Play Store Fees

Charlotte Henry ·

Google is reducing the fees it takes from developers in the Play Store, CNBC reported. It is dropping the cut it takes from subscriptions from 30 percent to 15 from day one. The move from Google follows similar ones made by Apple.

Google also said on Thursday that it was introducing a program to allow e-books, music streaming services, and other apps that pay for content to access fees as low as 10%. Apple doesn’t make exceptions for those kind of apps and doesn’t offer a 10% fee to developers in its app store. Apple, which has received more regulator attention over its app store than Google, over the past two years cut its take from 30% to 15% in many cases, including for apps making less than $1 million per year, news apps, and certain premium video streamers that participate in an Apple program. But Apple still charges 30% for the first year of a subscription, meaning that Google’s app store may be more competitive for subscription-based apps.

 

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Dutch Regulator Demands Apple Makes Changes to In-app Purchases

Charlotte Henry ·

Regulators in the Netherlands have found that Apple’s rules around its in-app payment system are anti-competitive. It has ordered the company to make changes, Reuters reported.

The Dutch investigation into whether Apple’s practices amounted to an abuse of a dominant market position was launched in 2019 but later reduced in scope to focus primarily on dating market apps. They included a complaint from Match Group, owner of the popular dating service Tinder, which said Apple’s rules were hindering it from direct communications with its customers about payments. The Netherlands’ Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) last month informed the U.S. technology giant of its decision, making it the first antitrust regulator to make a finding the company has abused market power in the app store, though Apple is facing challenges in multiple countries. ACM has not levied a fine against Apple, but demanded changes to the in-app payment system, the people said.