Lawyers look to scale the walled garden
Apple is facing a legal challenge over the „creator tax,“ or the commission it charges developers who write the apps that populate its digital walled garden.
Sean Ennis, professor of competition policy who has worked as an economist at the OECD, US Department of Justice and the European Commission, claims Apple has engineered „contractual and technical conditions“ that make the App Store the sole location where app developers can market or sell apps for iOS.
„The fact [is] that users and developers are completely locked into the iOS system and the App Store gives Apple monopoly power, which Apple leverages to charge excessive fees on app developers,“ he said in a statement.
Ennis, who is currently CCP director and professor of competition policy at the University of East Anglia, added: „The UK industry is being forced to pay an unjustified 30 percent premium on the price of their app as well as in-app purchases – money that could be reinvested in the UK’s digital economy.“
The proposed class action is being filed with the UK’s Competition Appeal Tribunal, and the opt-out collective proceedings suit is being brought on behalf of the 1,566 app developers in the UK by law firm Geradin Partners.
