A new front opens for Apple
Looks like Apple hasn't been having a very smooth few weeks. First it was because of Spotify, a company that complained to the European Commission about the conditions of the Apple App Store accusing it of unfair competition, anti-competitive activities and abuse of position
These accusations had a firm and forceful response from Apple affecting the weak points of Spotify and it seems to have stopped there. But now, a group of developers from the Netherlands have filed an antitrust lawsuit against Google and Apple for their app stores.
Depending on what the agency deems, the rules of the App Store could change
According to the developers who have filed this lawsuit with the ACM (the country's antitrust body) both Apple and Google take advantage of and abuse their platforms to download applications to make those companies' own apps take precedence.
They also argue that the apps pre-installed on the system iOS have preference over the others and also complain about the conditions imposed by Appleto the apps, like the 30% commission. Faced with this, Apple has responded by saying that all developers have the same opportunities and that they hope that the investigation will corroborate it.
The iOS App Store
If the ACM ruled in favor of the developers, what would happen? First of all, there would be the possibility that, at some point and in the Netherlands, Apple had to allow apps to be downloaded on iOS from sources other than the App Store.
This possibility is quite striking. This is because one of the champions of Apple is the security offered by its ecosystem and this possibility would diminish it. The other option could be that, in the Netherlands, the conditions of the App Store were more lax. Or even that the app store would disappear, the latter being highly unlikely.
Perhaps the solution for these developers who seem to want all the advantages of their own operating system, wouldn't it be to create their own operating systems and devices? Be that as it may, we will have to wait to find out what the organization finally decides and from APPerlas we will keep you informed.
