According to Payments Cards & Mobile, the EC stated that Apple Pay appears to deny consumers the benefits of new payment technologies, as Apple sets the conditions on how Apple Pay should be used in merchants’ apps and websites. Besides, the company also reserves the ‘tap and go’ functionality of iPhones to Apple Pay.
Accordingly, the company declared that it followed the law stating that the Commission has listened to ‘baseless complaints’ from a small number of businesses. Moreover, a formal antitrust investigation into Apple’s App Store came after a complaint from Spotify, in March 2019, and a subsequent complaint from ereader company Kobo, over how Apple takes a 30% commission on every subscription signed up through its App Store in the first year, and then a 15% cut. At that time, Apple has also promoted its own music and books services.
In the past, the company defended its fees policy, by saying that businesses are free not to sell through the App Store, as the platform allows access to billions of users. However, only apps that pay the 30% commission are able to sell directly to consumers and charge upfront for downloads.
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