2023-07-25 16:50:17
The American tech giant Apple is the subject of a 785 million pounds (914 million euros) procedure in the United Kingdom for abuse of a dominant position on the prices charged to developers who use its application platform.
Sean Ennis, professor of competition policy at the University of East Anglia (east of England), on Tuesday brought “a claim on behalf of more than 1,500 British application developers before the Competition Appeal Tribunal”, announced the academic in a press release.
According to him, the “30% + commission + charged for sales on the App Store” by the world’s largest private group is an “anti-competitive tax on the British technology industry” and the country’s developers “are now entitled to up to 785 million pounds in compensation”.
The Californian giant is criticized for its rigidity by many publishers and competition authorities in several countries, who mainly accuse Apple of taking a commission (up to 30%) on all revenue made through the App Store, the essential application store on iPhones for third-party application developers.
In the United Kingdom, the British competition police (CMA) notably opened an investigation in 2021 into the group’s practices in the distribution of applications, in particular the terms and conditions governing developer access to its platform.
The Cupertino group announced in December that it would give developers more freedom to set their prices on the App Store.
Contacted by AFP, Apple in the United Kingdom did not respond immediately.