Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

CTOnews.com, July 26 (Reuters)-more than 1500 developers in the UK have filed a class action lawsuit against Apple's App Store, alleging "unfair" behavior, charging "excessive" commissions and demanding compensation of 785 million pounds (CTOnews.com Note: currently about 7.238 billion yuan), according to Reuters.

Apple responded, stressing that a US judge had rejected its claim of monopoly power in the Epic Games case, according to 9to5Mac.

The latest lawsuit was filed in the UK, so the US ruling is not binding, but Apple says it has not taken advantage of its position and has been reducing commissions or offering new exemptions to developers.

Whether Apple has monopoly power depends on its perspective. Apple believes that the correct perspective is the entire smartphone or app market, in which the company has only a minority share. The developers who filed the lawsuit retorted that the market was "iOS apps", where Apple had a 100 per cent monopoly on its sales and distribution. Except for some marginal situations, there is currently no way for developers not to bring iOS applications to market through App Store.

Apple reiterated another argument it had made in the past: developers can also choose to create web apps so that they can bypass App Store altogether.

Apple points out that there are two business models that allow developers to pay no commission: advertising support and free apps for hardware. Apple says most developers choose these models, so they don't have to pay a commission. In addition, since the launch of the small business program, almost all developers who need to pay a commission only have to pay 15%.

Apple also argues that it is not collecting some of the money in vain, and that it has invested heavily in developing and maintaining a global store trusted by consumers and provides huge opportunities for developers. In addition, the company provides value to developers in a variety of ways, from Xcode, Swift and training materials to more than 250000 API.

According to Apple, the App Store ecosystem is an important part of the economy, and developers are the main beneficiaries.

According to a study by economists at Analysis Group, the App Store ecosystem generated $1.1 trillion in total bills and sales in 2022, up 29% from 2022. Apple stresses that more than 90% of its revenue goes to developers.

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