Meta and Spotify both slammed Apple for anticompetitive behavior in its App Store through its “developer tax.”
Meta attacked Apple after it quietly updated its rules to require that certain transactions made in-app, such as purchases of NFTs or social media boosts, must be made through the App Store — thus making them subject to a 30% levy by Apple.
Spotify echoed those concerns and adopted a complicated purchase system to avoid the legalities of the App Store economy.
A Meta spokesperson told The Verge that “Apple continues to evolve its policies to grow their own business while undercutting others in the digital economy. Apple previously said it didn’t take a share of developer advertising revenue, and now apparently changed its mind. We remain committed to offering small businesses simple ways to run ads and grow their businesses on our apps.”
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Spotify raised complaints related to its expansion into audiobooks. The streaming service accused Apple of engaging in “anticompetitive” behavior. “Apple continues to stand in the way of Spotify’s and other developers’ abilities to provide a seamless user experience, and its restrictions hurt both creators and consumers alike,” the company wrote in a blog post.
The streaming service had its audiobook purchasing service rejected three times by Apple due to it violating the App Store’s rules. Spotify complied by hiding the audiobooks’ prices and forcing the user to buy the audiobooks via a link to a vendor provided via email.
Spotify could have sold the audiobooks directly through the app, but that would have made the sales susceptible to the 30% App Store tax. “With our Audiobooks launch, Apple has once again proven just how brazen it is willing to be with its App Store rules, constantly shifting the goalposts to disadvantage their competitors,” Spotify CEO Daniel Ek said in a statement.
Apple pushed back, saying the company could have easily been approved if it had stuck to the guidelines. “We provided them with clear guidance on how to resolve the issue and approved their app after they made changes that brought it into compliance,” a spokesperson told the New York Times.
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Apple’s App Store pricing scheme was the focus of recent legal action. Epic Games, the developer of Fortnite, filed a suit against Apple in 2020, accusing it of engaging in anticompetitive behavior after removing the popular video game from its store. While most of Epic’s claims were dismissed, the judge ruled in 2021 that Apple was barred from requiring developers to use the App Store payment system for internal purchases.
