App Developers Urge European Commission to Take Action Against Apple Over Unfair Charging Rules

JAKARTA - A coalition consisting of 20 application developers and consumer groups urged the European Commission to take action against Apple. This demand was issued on Tuesday, December 16.

According to the group, Apple needs to be punished for implementing unfair new cost structures. The implementation of these cost rules is considered to be detrimental to developers in Europe compared to its competitors in the US.

This appeal comes after a US court recently restricted Apple's ability. The company was banned from charging full fees on transactions outside its ecosystem. According to the coalition, the rule caused an imbalance.

Based on the European Union's Digital Markets Act (DMA), large technology platforms such as Apple must facilitate in-app transactions outside their ecosystems. The DMA rules stipulate that these transactions must be free of charge.

The European Commission fined Apple 500 million euros (Rp9.8 trillion) earlier this year for violating DMA provisions. This fine was imposed because Apple prevented developers from directing users to alternative payment methods.

In response to the ruling, Apple has revised its terms, but still charges. These new fees range from 13 percent for small businesses to 20 percent for purchases on the App Store. There are also penalties of 5 percent to 15 percent for external transactions.

English:

According to the Coalition for App Fairness (CAF), these revised fees still violate DMA provisions. They also highlighted that US developers benefited from much more favorable terms after recent court decisions in the US.

CAF's Global Policy Advisor, Gene Burrus, stated that developers in the EU were forced to bear the cost or pass it on to customers. According to CAF, European developers are still disadvantaged after six months the Commission declared Apple's policy illegal under the DMA.

"We want the European Commission to tell Apple that the law is the law and that free means free," Burrus said in a statement, quoted by Reuters on Tuesday, December 16. "This is bad for European companies, and this is bad for European consumers."