The Coalition for App Fairness (CAF) issued a statement on Thursday welcoming the U.S. Department of Justice’s antitrust lawsuit against Apple. The organization includes some important app makers, including Epic Games, Spotify, Deezer, MatchGroup, Proton, and others.
"With today's announcement, the Department of Justice is taking a strong stance against Apple's efforts to stifle competition in the mobile app ecosystem, which harms American consumers and developers," said CAF Executive Director Rick Van Meter. "The Department of Justice's complaint details a long history of unlawful conduct by Apple - abusing its App Store Guidelines and Developer Agreement to raise prices, extract high fees, degrade user experience and stifle competition. The Department of Justice, along with regulators around the world, has recognized the many harms of Apple's abuses and is working to address them."
Some members of the CAF, such as Epic and Spotify, have been involved in high-profile legal proceedings over Apple's anti-competitive behavior.
For years, Epic CEO Tim Sweeney has been dissatisfied with Apple's 30% cut of in-app payments, calling it monopolistic and predatory. In 2020, Epic allowed "Fortnite" players to pay Epic directly instead of taking a cut from Apple. Subsequently, Apple removed Epic from the App Store, triggering a series of legal proceedings. While Epic has had some victories—developers are now allowed to direct users to alternative payment methods—Apple has not been proven to be a monopoly in any of these lawsuits.
As the Digital Markets Act (DMA) comes into effect in the European Union, Spotify and Apple are increasingly at odds. The DMA is supposed to promote competition in the EU, but Spotify calls Apple's DMA compliance plan - which adds additional developer fees - "a complete farce."
Spotify CEO Daniel Ek said in a post on
But in Apple’s view, CAF is the bad guy. In briefing reporters on the Justice Department's antitrust lawsuit, Apple showed a slide that positioned CAF as part of a network of companies trying to take down Apple for personal gain.
Apple said in a statement: "This lawsuit threatens our image and the principles that make Apple products stand out in a fiercely competitive market. If successful, it will prevent us from creating the Apple technology that people have come to expect - the intersection of hardware, software and services. It will also set a dangerous precedent that empowers the government to have significant interference in the design of people's technology. We believe this lawsuit is wrong on fact and law, and we will vigorously defend it."
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