Apple denies French government's 'abusive commercial practices' accusation
Apple has responded to accusations by the French government that it is taking advantage of the country's developers, dismissing claims of 'abusive commercial practices' by highlighting the funds paid to the nation's iOS app developers and the support it provides to both application producers and their users.
Apple's Opera store in Paris, France
"We are proud to have strong relationships with tens of thousands of developers across France," a translated statement from Apple provided to Le Figaro reads, in Apple's defense against comments made on Wednesday by French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire.
French developers have earned "1 billion euros ($1.23 billion) on the App Store," Apple highlights, continuing "Many of these talented developers started their businesses with one or two people and then saw their teams grow to offer their apps to users in 155 countries. This was only possible thanks to Apple's investment in iOS, development tools, and the App Store."
"We are fully prepared to share our story in the French courts and to clarify this misunderstanding." The statement ends noting "In the meantime, we will continue to help French developers realize their dreams and support French students in their code learning through our coding program."
Minister Le Maire accused Apple and Google of imposing prices on apps placed on the App Store, that the firms "take all their data," and can "unilaterally rewrite" their contracts. Calling it unacceptable and "not the economy" the country wants, Le Maire insisted "They can't treat our startups and developers the way they do."
Seemingly in answering the "take all their data" complaint, Apple states it "has always defended the privacy and security of users and does not have access to user transactions with third-party applications."
Le Maire made the comments as part of a radio interview about the French government's intention to take Apple and Google to court over so-called "abusive commercial practices." Based on an investigation between 2015 and 2017, the ministry's fraud office found there were "significant imbalances" in the relationship between the app marketplace-owning companies and the developers.
Google's response to Le Maire more directly addressed the commercial practices aspect of the minister's comments, noting the search giant has collaborated with government agencies on many topics, including Google Play. "We consider that our conditions are in accordance with French law and we are ready to explain our position before the courts," the statement claims.
Apple's Opera store in Paris, France
"We are proud to have strong relationships with tens of thousands of developers across France," a translated statement from Apple provided to Le Figaro reads, in Apple's defense against comments made on Wednesday by French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire.
French developers have earned "1 billion euros ($1.23 billion) on the App Store," Apple highlights, continuing "Many of these talented developers started their businesses with one or two people and then saw their teams grow to offer their apps to users in 155 countries. This was only possible thanks to Apple's investment in iOS, development tools, and the App Store."
"We are fully prepared to share our story in the French courts and to clarify this misunderstanding." The statement ends noting "In the meantime, we will continue to help French developers realize their dreams and support French students in their code learning through our coding program."
Minister Le Maire accused Apple and Google of imposing prices on apps placed on the App Store, that the firms "take all their data," and can "unilaterally rewrite" their contracts. Calling it unacceptable and "not the economy" the country wants, Le Maire insisted "They can't treat our startups and developers the way they do."
Seemingly in answering the "take all their data" complaint, Apple states it "has always defended the privacy and security of users and does not have access to user transactions with third-party applications."
Le Maire made the comments as part of a radio interview about the French government's intention to take Apple and Google to court over so-called "abusive commercial practices." Based on an investigation between 2015 and 2017, the ministry's fraud office found there were "significant imbalances" in the relationship between the app marketplace-owning companies and the developers.
Google's response to Le Maire more directly addressed the commercial practices aspect of the minister's comments, noting the search giant has collaborated with government agencies on many topics, including Google Play. "We consider that our conditions are in accordance with French law and we are ready to explain our position before the courts," the statement claims.
Comments
Stating the amount of money it has paid out (either through taxes or to developers) is irrelevant to the issues that are being posed.
And Apple didn't make ANY mistake with the Ireland / EU situation (not problem), as they followed the rules as provided by Ireland, like anyone would if such rules were deemed applicable and legal.
The fact the EU suddenly changed their mind because they weren't getting a big enough share of the pie is just the EU being a bunch of putzes.
And this whole business with the French taking Apple and Google to task for this nonsense is just the French being more obtuse than normal.
In the Irish case the investigators found that it was effectively Apple itself that decided how much to make available for taxation. For one particular year it is claimed that Apple paid an effective tax rate of 0.005%. Countering that we 'but we pay more taxes than anyone else' is utterly irrelevant.
In this French case I don't think the final amounts actually paid to developers was even mentioned. The issue is 'abusive business practices'.
it is EU that being a bitch that don’t like a “small” member country to play within their rules and make profit.
As for this case, given what the French Finance Minister said was mostly a lie, bringing up how much Apple has paid French developers is highly relevant.
What I have made clear is that if you really find it necessary to defend yourself in the realm of public opinion, if someone claims you decided for yourself how much to make available for taxation and the claimed percentage paid in an example was as low as 0.005%, then you take that bull by the horns and set the record straight in a clear and concise way.
What you don't do is play the 'values' card ('Apple believes in...' and follow it up with the 'victim' card ('we pay more taxes than anyone else') because the simple fact that you didn't counter the claims head on with anything bulletproof gets people's noses up and what they smell isn't usually roses and you have that hanging over your head in the public domain until the case is resolved.
You also leave yourself open to further damage if anything else floats to the surface (just as it did with the Panama Papers) and find people wanting you to give answers on that too.
It is far better to ride the storm and see how things play out. That way at least, things don't get worse from a PR perspective.
Nothing complex or even boring. Those are details that provoke curiosity among the general public. Two simple 'nos' would suffice.
If the claims are in fact true but lacking context a simple 'no comment' by legal representation would suffice on the grounds that the case is complex.
That's a bad situation to be in because many of the general public would see a 'no comment' as an admission of guilt but attempting to defend yourself publicly the way Apple did can open a can of worms.