Facebook Bashes Apple for Refusing to Waive Commission Fees 1y6w4i Seizing on Backlash

The move is the latest salvo in a long-running cold war between two of the world's most powerful tech companies. 5p1g52

By Reuters | Updated: 17 August 2020 09:56 IST

Facebook Bashes Apple for Refusing to Waive Commission Fees, Seizing on Backlash

Facebook said it requested the waiver so that small businesses would not have to pay Apple's cut 1x6v21

Highlights

Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment
Apple removed Fortnite from app store for violating its payment guideline
Apple takes a cut of between 15% and 30% for most app subscriptions

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Facebook said on Friday that Apple had declined its request to waive a 30 percent commission fee the iPhone maker charges apps listed on iOS devices, taking a shot at its fellow Big Tech peer as developers challenge the policy.

The move is the latest salvo in a long-running cold war between two of the world's most powerful tech companies, which have clashed over their approaches to privacy as both face regulatory scrutiny over alleged anticompetitive behavior.

Apple's cut for a new paid online events product the world's biggest social media company is launching on its core platform.

Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

On Thursday, Apple Epic Games to file a federal antitrust lawsuit challenging Apple's rules.

Apple takes a cut of between 15 percent and 30 percent for most app subscriptions and payments made inside apps, though there are some exceptions for companies that already have a credit card on file for iPhone customers if they also offer an in-app payment that would benefit Apple.

Developers have long criticized the commissions, as well as Apple's prohibitions on courting customers for outside s, and what some developers see as an opaque and unpredictable app-vetting process.

A mock-up of the new events product on iPhone, provided by Facebook, showed that the company planned to tell s that Apple would take 30 percent of the purchase.

Android devices, although it was not immediately clear whether it would assess a charge in this case. In its Android mock-up, Facebook noted only that it would not take a fee, without disclosing its arrangement with Google.

Google declined to comment on its fee arrangement for the product, and Facebook did not respond to the request for comment.

Facebook also did not say whether it had tried to make use of Apple's "multiplatform" exceptions.

The disclosure is likely to touch a nerve with Apple, whose said Apple rejected its attempts to communicate with s about the fee structures.

Fidji Simo, who heads the core Facebook app, announced the tool in a media conference call featuring small business owners who praised it as a way to reach customers and earn revenue online during the coronavirus pandemic.

She said Facebook considered it "important to be transparent, when people are ing small businesses," as s might not be aware that part of their payments could be "going to an almost $2 trillion (roughly Rs. 1,49,72,200 crores) company."

Asked if she thought Apple would approve the change, even with language about fees that could discourage s from using the in-app purchase mechanism, she said she expected to find out "in the next couple days."

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