david808

I don’t agree with this. Apple isn’t saying that you cannot set up shop in a location that’s outside the mall, and not on mall property. There’s plenty of other malls. Android Mall is much bigger, but their customer service regularly gets lambasted for being horrible. Apple Mall is insisting that if you want to sell in their mall then you have to obey their rules. They built their mall on their reputation of ensuring that customers don’t get ripped off and that the quality of goods and services is high. If you read the lawsuit, Epic approached Apple because they wanted to open their own App Store on iOS and sell apps directly to customers, bypassing Apple’s review process and payment systems. Apple, consistent with their policy, said unequivocally no to epic. 

To stretch the analogy, Epic wanted to open their own mall in Apple’s parking lot. Selling the same stuff, backed by Apple’s reputation (because, hey..they’re on Apple Mall property they must be approved by Apple Mall...right?), but with their own cash registers and payment vendors. Ones that are more like paiepal and vynmoe that charge Epic less money to process transactions. Mall customers may not see the difference until something goes wrong, and then it really goes wrong. Who takes the reputation hit then? Is it the parking lot mall or do customers go right into the mall office and complain? Apple Mall ultimately gets blamed for a shoddy transaction conducted in their parking lot, that they had no control over or input into. 

Apple is protecting their business reputation by insisting on strict rules. Epic is saying that while Apple’s Mall is great, it should be like all the other malls and offer crappy products with lousy customer service because having to meet Apple Mall’s quality and payment standards is just unfair.