Microsoft president raised concerns about Apple App Store in House antitrust meeting
Microsoft president and chief legal officer Brad Smith reportedly expressed concerns about the Apple App Store in a meeting with the U.S. House antitrust committee investigating dominant tech companies.
Credit: Microsoft
The meeting came a few weeks before the House's Judiciary Antitrust Subcommittee is set to grill prominent tech executives like Apple CEO Tim Cook, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and Alphabet and Google CEO Sundai Pichai.
Amid the ongoing antitrust probe, the committee met with Smith via videoconference earlier in the summer, The Information reported. According to sources familiar with the meeting, the primary goal was to get Microsoft's perspective as a major technology company that has faced past antitrust regulation.
But The Information notes that Smith also discussed some of Microsoft's "concerns" about how Apple operates its App Store -- an issue at the forefront of the House committee's investigation.
Specifically, the concerns centered on the "arbitrariness of Apple's practices around approving apps, while also criticizing Apple's requirement that developers use the company's payment mechanism through their apps." Smith did not levy any criticisms against other tech companies, sources claimed.
Spotify, Basecamp and other companies have complained about Apple's 15% to 30% cut of in-app purchases made through its payment system. In June, the House antitrust chairperson called the fees "highway robbery."
Apple, for its part, says that those fees are meant to ensure consistency across the App Store -- not to generate excess profits.
The House launched their bipartisan probe investigating "weak" antitrust enforcement of technology companies in 2019. The same year, the U.S. Department of Justice also launched a massive antitrust investigation.
At a Politico event in June, Microsoft's Smith chimed in on antitrust probes, stating that it's past time for regulators to examine Apple's practices.
In addition to antitrust scrutiny in the U.S., Apple is also in the spotlight elsewhere in the world. In June, the European Commission launched their own probe investigation alleged anticompetitive practices on both the App Store and Apple Pay.
Credit: Microsoft
The meeting came a few weeks before the House's Judiciary Antitrust Subcommittee is set to grill prominent tech executives like Apple CEO Tim Cook, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and Alphabet and Google CEO Sundai Pichai.
Amid the ongoing antitrust probe, the committee met with Smith via videoconference earlier in the summer, The Information reported. According to sources familiar with the meeting, the primary goal was to get Microsoft's perspective as a major technology company that has faced past antitrust regulation.
But The Information notes that Smith also discussed some of Microsoft's "concerns" about how Apple operates its App Store -- an issue at the forefront of the House committee's investigation.
Specifically, the concerns centered on the "arbitrariness of Apple's practices around approving apps, while also criticizing Apple's requirement that developers use the company's payment mechanism through their apps." Smith did not levy any criticisms against other tech companies, sources claimed.
Spotify, Basecamp and other companies have complained about Apple's 15% to 30% cut of in-app purchases made through its payment system. In June, the House antitrust chairperson called the fees "highway robbery."
Apple, for its part, says that those fees are meant to ensure consistency across the App Store -- not to generate excess profits.
The House launched their bipartisan probe investigating "weak" antitrust enforcement of technology companies in 2019. The same year, the U.S. Department of Justice also launched a massive antitrust investigation.
At a Politico event in June, Microsoft's Smith chimed in on antitrust probes, stating that it's past time for regulators to examine Apple's practices.
In addition to antitrust scrutiny in the U.S., Apple is also in the spotlight elsewhere in the world. In June, the European Commission launched their own probe investigation alleged anticompetitive practices on both the App Store and Apple Pay.
Comments
Another issue, that in my opinion doesn't makes sense, is Apple blocking games streaming services (xCloud, Stadia, GForce Now). I hope Apple change their mind in the future.
Yes and that was after stealing Apple's engineering and App Store idea.
So Apple should pay for Microsoft's failure? What kinda logic is that? Apple invented the App Store and should generate as much profit from it as possible.
I wanna be able to sell my games on Xbox without paying MS a dime!! /s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKIcaejkpD4
Of course he cares about "antitrust" issues and doesn't have a vested interest. Not like he works for a failed competitor or anything.
/s
In other news Burger King says there's too many McDonald's locations, causes environmental problems.
Not saying everything about the App Store is perfect or that it doesn't make sense for Congress to modernize some of the digital distribution rules with new legislation, but I think it will be hard for anyone to find things that rise to the level of antitrust under current law. Federal courts seemed to be fine with Amazon controlling 90% of ebook sales as long as their prices for consumers were lower.
I blame this on historic Windows branding, and the Windows license business model, and an almost entirely separated Xbox franchise. Perhaps Smith is now at the stage of tearing down the competition in lieu of actually innovating.
It's interesting to me that Apple has recently enabled iOS and iPad apps to run on Mac OS Big Sur and ASi with little effort from developers, certainly adding increased value to developers in the App store. With ASi rumored performance, will Apple now become a gamers haven?
Second, the article mentions that MS discussion was about "arbitrariness of Apple's practices around approving apps, while also criticizing Apple's requirement that developers use the company's payment mechanism through their apps". And based of what I have read from developers, maybe they have a valid point.
what I have read from developers. For example, is there a valid reason for Apple to block game streaming services, like Stadia, GeForce Now or xCloud? Does it makes sense to you?
Weak sauce.
Apple doesn't have its own game streaming service, so why would they want to enable 3rd party game streaming? Will Congress now force Apple to provide streaming games, and what would be a fair cut?