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Apple, legally settlement Announced with a group of app developers on Thursday, the company said it will allow developers to encourage customers to pay outside of their iPhone apps.
The move would allow app manufacturers to avoid paying Apple commissions on their sales, and could relax developers and regulators over control over mobile apps, including strict policies designed to force developers to pay a share of their sales.
The deal seems like a small price to pay for the world’s richest company to avoid another protracted legal battle that could pose huge risks to its business by targeting the iPhone. app store. In practice, some big companies like Spotify are already pushing their customers to avoid Apple’s commissions.
Apple is still pending a federal judge’s decision in a separate lawsuit filed by Epic Games, maker of the popular game Fortnite, aimed at forcing Apple to allow app developers to avoid App Store commissions altogether. Consumers have also sued Apple for app commissions. The US Supreme Court allowed seeks to advance in federal court and have this class action status.
Under the new agreement, Apple also said it would set up a $100 million fund for payments to small app developers and agreed not to raise the commission rate for small developers. reduced from 30 percent last year to 15 percent, for at least three years.
At the briefing with journalists, Apple The executive said it’s a huge concession for Apple to allow developers to inform customers about alternative payment methods via email and other channels. Apple will continue to prevent developers from telling customers about other payment methods in iPhone apps.
The Apple executive added that Thursday’s deal shows small app developers are mostly good at maintaining their current App Store policies, including reduced commission. But larger developers who pay the higher fees continue to complain.
Apple prevented reporters from naming or quoting the Apple executive directly.
Some companies are already pushing customers to other payment ways. Spotify, for example, has long blocked customers from signing up for a subscription to its music service in its app – and sometimes advertised it. Apple’s decision on Thursday appears to be removing a rule it has already selectively enforced.
Steve Berman, attorney for the plaintiffs in the lawsuit seeking class action status, said: “A lawsuit brought by two developers standing in the shoes of tens of thousands of US iOS developers brings a very important change.”
The App Fairness Coalition, a group of companies struggling to change Apple’s App Store policies, said in a statement that the deal was a “fake deal” designed to appease courts, regulators and lawmakers.
“This proposal does nothing to address the structural, fundamental issues facing developers big and small, undermining innovation and competition in the app ecosystem,” said the group, which includes Epic Games, Spotify, and Match Group. “Allowing developers to communicate with customers about lower prices outside of their apps is not a compromise and further emphasizes Apple’s full control over the app market.”
In the deal, Apple also agreed to publish an annual report on the number of apps it has rejected or removed from the App Store, and data on search results. New York Times reported in 2019 Apple prefers its own applications in search results compared to its competitors. Apple agreed to the deal to guarantee that search results “will continue to be based on objective specifications” for at least three more years.
The settlement will be subject to approval by U.S. District Court Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers for the Northern District of California, the same judge presiding over consumer lawsuits against Epic Games and Apple.
According to the plaintiffs’ lawyers, developers who earned less than $1 million a year in the App Store from June 2015 to April 2021 are eligible to receive payments between $250 and $30,000 each from Apple’s proposed $100 million funding.
Separately on Thursday, Apple said it would also allow news organizations to pay a 15 percent discounted commission on subscriptions sold through iPhone apps, but only if they joined It’s on Apple’s news service, Apple News. The Times and some other news outlets Pulled from Apple News because in recent years they have taken control of their relationships with readers and potential subscribers.
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