Usual suspects complain about App Store price hikes outside US
The Coalition for App Fairness and Epic Games' Tim Sweeney equate Apple's recent international App Store price hikes to small business landlords demanding raised product prices.
Coalition for App Fairness fights for developers
Apple increased App Store prices for many non-US customers without giving a direct reason. The increase affects any market that uses the euro as well as Chile, Egypt, Japan, Malaysia, Pakistan, Poland, South Korea, Sweden, and Vietnam.
The price hike equates to about a 20% increase in prices. So, a 0.99 euro app now costs 1.19 euros.
While Apple didn't provide exact reasoning, looking at the global economy gives more than enough reason. The euro is weaker versus the dollar than it has ever been. Additionally, international markets are suffering from the same global economic problems as the United States.
As expected, Apple's most vocal opponents publicly commented on their displeasure in App Store price increases. Quotes obtained by Protocol state that Apple's control of the App Store gives them unchecked power.
"These increases were made without the input or consent of app developers, which highlights the extent of Apple's market power," wrote Rick VanMeter, executive director for the Coalition for App Fairness. "In no other industry can a business single-handedly increase the prices of another business's products."
Epic CEO Tim Sweeney added his own comments to the mix. He compared Apple to a commercial landlord telling tenants they had to increase their prices without giving them any say in the matter or anywhere else to go.
"Developers don't want to raise their app prices in the EU and UK," Sweeney said in a follow up tweet. "Consumers don't want app price increases in the EU and UK. Central banks fighting inflation don't want app price inflation."
The argument, raised on a regular basis, is that Apple shouldn't control the App Store nor should it prevent third-parties from running their own stores on iOS. Many of these issues were discussed at length during the Epic Games versus Apple trial.
Read on AppleInsider
Coalition for App Fairness fights for developers
Apple increased App Store prices for many non-US customers without giving a direct reason. The increase affects any market that uses the euro as well as Chile, Egypt, Japan, Malaysia, Pakistan, Poland, South Korea, Sweden, and Vietnam.
The price hike equates to about a 20% increase in prices. So, a 0.99 euro app now costs 1.19 euros.
While Apple didn't provide exact reasoning, looking at the global economy gives more than enough reason. The euro is weaker versus the dollar than it has ever been. Additionally, international markets are suffering from the same global economic problems as the United States.
As expected, Apple's most vocal opponents publicly commented on their displeasure in App Store price increases. Quotes obtained by Protocol state that Apple's control of the App Store gives them unchecked power.
"These increases were made without the input or consent of app developers, which highlights the extent of Apple's market power," wrote Rick VanMeter, executive director for the Coalition for App Fairness. "In no other industry can a business single-handedly increase the prices of another business's products."
Epic CEO Tim Sweeney added his own comments to the mix. He compared Apple to a commercial landlord telling tenants they had to increase their prices without giving them any say in the matter or anywhere else to go.
"Developers don't want to raise their app prices in the EU and UK," Sweeney said in a follow up tweet. "Consumers don't want app price increases in the EU and UK. Central banks fighting inflation don't want app price inflation."
The argument, raised on a regular basis, is that Apple shouldn't control the App Store nor should it prevent third-parties from running their own stores on iOS. Many of these issues were discussed at length during the Epic Games versus Apple trial.
Read on AppleInsider
Comments
I like how so many businessmen are all for the Free Market, until the Free Market decides their product isn’t what the Free Market wants. Then they want regulation to protect them from the Free Market.
ps: that “moron” is a billionaire with an amazing set of companies under his belt. Cut the juvenile behavior please.
As far as Sweeney being a billionaire, that really means little any more. Lots of talentless people are billionaire <ahem> Zuckerberg<ahem> . The size of a bank account does not equal the quality of a person. That is measured by one’s behaviour, and the Epic CEO is perhaps not a moron, but clearly is a whiney crybaby, with a gross misunderstanding of how the free market works. There’s an old saying, “Live by the sword, die by the sword”. He had no trouble when Epic was stomping all over developers to build his empire. Now that he’s running up against a company doing something he doesn’t like, he wants to play the victim.
Pure trash.
Apple is a US company, so their coin is $$$. In Europe people use €€€ where 1$ = 1 €.
So, a $ 0.99 app should cost € 0.99 in Europe? Not so! In Europe the VAT of about 20% needs to be added. 0.99 + 20% = € 1,19.
It's a miracle? Well no. The epic miracle is that you, CEO of Epic Games don't (want to) understand this. If you happen to be in the market for, for instance, some European-built car then you can expect the prices to have dropped about 20% as well. Will you complain? No? Sounds hypocrite to me.
Yeah, the price increase indeed suck for people like me living in Europe but I do understand it and accept it. I just hope the exchange rates will soon go back to $1.20 or something.
And I'm not entirely sure where to start looking for them. This might take a while.
On the other, other hand, a quick check shows we might be marginally up against the US$ this morning. Still pretty low, but higher than the last time I checked a few days ago.
Funny how Epic never talks about the duopoly in console gaming or how addictive their games are. Funny how they contort themselves into advocating for consoles to be locked down. Look - If the argument is that “I paid for my iPhone, I should be able to do whatever I want with it,” then that goes for the console that I paid for as well.
The points made by the app coalition have a fair degree of validity.
Apps are not universally available in all regions. Legally speaking, the EU App Store setup may well be a fully constituted EU company.
Why not let it operate as such and take its own operational decisions? For apps that developers want to sell in the EU, it would make sense for a wholly EU company to manage everything - locally. Keep it all within the EU boundaries.
I’m sure the situation could be improved to give developers a bit more control over the sale of their own products, though Sweeney is obviously angling more for headlines than any actual positive change.
Apple doesn't view itself as organised into multiple independent teams: it's one interconnected company regardless of legal configuration or departmental boundaries. US companies in general don't have a reputation for allowing international subsidiaries to have operational independence, Apple is even more controlling.
I don't disagree that Apple has pricing power, but the same can be said about several companies that don't seem to have raised the ire of regulators or consumers in general.
https://appleinsider.com/articles/22/09/20/apple-to-hike-app-store-prices-in-europe-and-other-countries-in-october
For your second ....... I imagine if a developer only sell their app (or a special version of one) in certain countries, then it's yes. They can price it as they wish. But if they sell the same app in more than one country, then the apps will cost the same in all those countries, with regards to currency exchange rates.
If the same app cost significantly less in the US, than it does in the UK (or EU), what prevent a person (outside the US) from buying the same app in the US by using a VPN?
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4033501
https://vpnxpert.com/how-to-download-app-with-vpn/
Users in the EU can use a VPN to avoid VAT. but that could be illegal, if you get caught using a VPN for this purpose. But using a VPN to bypass geographical restrictions is legal for the most part. But might be against the policy of the company that owns the content.
https://www.lifehack.org/536364/4-awesome-advantages-using-virtual-private-network-vpn
There are dozens of app stores and each with their own landlord and policies. Plus with Android, the developer can be their own landlord and sell their apps on their own website and have the buyer side load it into their devices.
https://buildfire.com/mobile-app-stores-list/
Plus it's not the price of the app that is the "rent". The "rent" would be Apple's commission. Sweeney can't even get that right.
This system has been in effect for around 10 years precisely because people (back in the day) were buying physical books on Amazon US for shipment to EU countries and not paying sales tax on them. The EU changed the legislation to tackle that.
Digital sales from the likes of Amazon and Apple will probably use your registered address and other data to further close the loop (noose?).
The EU is currently working on an updated directive in order to improve traceability of international online payments.
If anyone has successfully purchased digital content from outside the EU using a VPN to get a better deal, please chime in.
For physical goods it still works out well for me to purchase direct cheaper items from China although packages could get trapped in Customs even if VAT is charged at my local rate.
Hell, I think all the developer would have to do in Xcode, is to add something like ... "UK" ....to the title of their app and create another app for the app store, that they can restricted for sale only in the UK. Now the developer have two of the same app in the app store, each with a different title, that they can manage separately. Doesn't seem to be a major inconvenience, unless they want to separately manage all the apps they sell in like a dozen or more countries. But even those versions would be subject to Apple pricing changes due to the changes in the currency exchange rates. So the developers still have to keep up with that.