Major US news outlets have joined the list of companies and app developers who criticize Apple’s App Store terms as unfair and potentially anti-competitive. The newspaper trade group Digital Content Next, which represents news organizations such as The New York Times en The Washington Post, sent a letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook on Thursday asking how a deal with Apple to negotiate is similar to the one that Amazon awarded in 2016 for its Prime video app. News about the letter was first reported by today The Wall Street Journal.
“We would like to know what conditions our members – high quality digital content companies – must meet to be eligible for the scheme that Amazon receives for its Amazon Prime Video app in the Apple App Store,” the letter , penned by Digital Content Next CEO Jason Kint, last.
That deal, revealed as part of a House antirust hearing that Cook and other key tech executives brought to Capitol Hill to testify late last month, gave Amazon a generous 85-15 percent share of revenue with Apple for in- Prime Video app subscriptions. Apple typically takes a 30 percent cut on all in-app purchases.
That “Apple tax”, as it is sometimes called, is at the heart of both a European Union anti-trust investigation and a legal and regulatory showdown with Fortnite creator Epic Games, which sued Apple last week after the iPhone maker removed the battle royale game from the App Store over the inclusion and promotion of Epic from an alternative in-app payment system. (Epic also sued Google after it was removed Fortnite of the Play Store for similar reasons as Apple.) The App Store cut in addition to Apple’s other restrictions it places on developers have become central issues for the iPhone maker in repeated dustups with late-year third-party developers , including Hey email service maker Basecamp and Facebook.
Now publishers, who have had a controversial relationship with Apple since the introduction of Apple News, are also having trouble cutting the App Store. While Apple is not responsible for the online ad duopoly that has helped drive news publishers’ revenue over the last two decades (that would be Facebook and Google), it serves as a massive new platform on iOS and macOS in the form of the Apple News app and its magazine-oriented subscription platform, Apple News Plus.
Publishers have in the past taken over issues with Apple’s control over in-app ads and user data that can help publishers to generate content shared on the platform. The New York Times in particular, it refused to take part in Apple News Plus over the reported unfavorable conditions of the platform, and the publisher even withdrew all its articles from the standard, free version of Apple News back in June over similar concerns.
In the letter, Kint commented on the Amazon deal, in which Cook said such terms are available to any developer “meeting the terms.” Cook has never made clear what those terms are and which in reality are likely to include being a giant business rival like Amazon, whose CEO Jeff Bezos personally negotiated with former Apple vice president Eddy Cue to secure the terms , according to emails published by the House antitrust subcommittee.
“Almost all DCN members offer apps in the Apple App Store, and as noted above, many offer subscription-based access to a wide variety of content. The conditions of Apple’s unique marketplace have a huge impact on its ability to continue investing in high-quality, trusted news and entertainment, especially in competition with other larger companies, ”writes Kint. “In accordance with your statement to the Commission, I ask that you clearly define the terms and conditions that Amazon meets with its terms, so that DCN member companies that meet these terms and conditions can be offered the same agreement. I look forward to out to discuss this with you. ”
