Epic Games Finds Support in News Publishers in Battle Against the Mighty Apple

Days after Epic Games slammed Apple and Google for the unjustified App store fees, representatives from publishing giants like New York Times and Washington Post have arrived on the scene asking “what it will take to cut its fees down?”

They are apparently looking up to Apple to bring its 30 per cent fees down to 15 per cent to ensure fair competition.

The acrimonious tussle between Epic Games and “mighty” Apple does not seem to cool down. It has just been one week since Epic announced that they are definitely going to sue Apple over the App Store fees spar, it again has been asked to bring its fees down by a different part from another industry.

A trade organization called Digital Content Next which is a representative of printed news publishing giants like New York Times, Washington Post and Viacom CBS (that owns a website called CNET.com) has made it clear that Apple must bring that 30 per cent fee down to 15 per cent.

In case you are not caught up, Fortnite was thrown out by Apple and Google for bypassing the payment system set up in their respective App Store by creating their own payment system within the game. Apple and Google were not having any of that, so they took an action that massively infuriated Epic, which owns the hugely popular game Fortnite.

Now, Digital Content Next has also come forward and has asked Apple to bring down its fees; the reason that compelled Epic to create its own payment system in the first place.

The move from Digital Content Next was actually inspired by another business giant Amazon. The employees of DCN went through the documents which were released after the antitrust briefing, which was held between a congressional committee and CEOs of all the tech giants. The documents clearly stated that Apple takes around 15 per cent cut from Amazon’s Prime Video revenue from Appstore. Apple takes 15 per cent in that despite the standard charges set to be 30 per cent.

Mathematically speaking, 30 per cent is way too high. It means that the tech colossus will directly own nearly a third of every newspaper subscription via Apple devices which includes iPhone, iPads and others.

DCN has severely criticized Apple for its so-called “non-negotiable” App Store fees. The fees also put pressure on the app developers to increase the subscription value, which in turn makes Apple earn more despite providing the same services.

In an open letter to Tim Cook, CEO of DCN has demanded a clear written statement of the conditions that Apple requires from a developer so that they also get the same treatment that Amazon gets from Apple.

The conditions set in the Apple marketplace continue to affect free and fair means of investment in the informative and entertainment industry. In simpler terms, the conditions favour a larger firm’s monopoly, which should not happen in a fair market place. Apple has not issued any statement yet regarding the open letter sent by the DCN CEO. It will be interesting to see how Apple responds to this dilemma.

Source : Battle Against the Mighty Apple

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Created on Aug 25th 2020 02:13. Viewed 221 times.

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