Sean Ennis, professor of competition policy at the University of East Anglia (east of England), on Tuesday “filed a complaint on behalf of more than 1,500 British application developers before the Competition Appeal Tribunal,” the academic said in a press release.
According to him, the “30% + commission + charged on App Store sales” by the world’s largest private company is an “anti-competitive tax on the UK tech industry” and the country’s developers “are now entitled to up to £785m in compensation”.
The Californian giant has been 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 generated through the App Store, the main application store on iPhones for third-party application developers.
In the United Kingdom, in 2021, the UK Competition Police (CMA) notably launched an investigation into the group’s application distribution practices, specifically the terms and conditions governing developer access to its platform.
The Cupertino-based company announced in December that it would give developers more freedom to set their prices in the App Store.
Apple in the UK was contacted by AFP and did not immediately respond.
© 2023 AFP