Apple Settles Brazilian Antitrust Case, Must Allow Third-Party App Stores and External Payment Links (macrumors.com) 22
Apple has agreed to a settlement with Brazil's antitrust regulator that will require the company to allow third-party app stores on iPhones and permit developers to direct users to external payment options, marking another country where Apple's tightly controlled App Store model is being pried open by government action.
Brazil's Administrative Council of Economic Defense approved the settlement this week, resolving an investigation that began in 2022 into whether Apple's restrictions on app distribution and payments limited competition. Under the new rules, developers can offer third-party payment methods within their apps alongside Apple's own system. The fee structure varies: purchases through Apple's system remain subject to a 10% or 25% commission plus a 5% transaction fee. Apps that include a clickable link to external payment will face a 15% fee, while static text directing users elsewhere incurs no charge. Third-party app stores will pay a 5% Core Technology Commission.
Brazil's Administrative Council of Economic Defense approved the settlement this week, resolving an investigation that began in 2022 into whether Apple's restrictions on app distribution and payments limited competition. Under the new rules, developers can offer third-party payment methods within their apps alongside Apple's own system. The fee structure varies: purchases through Apple's system remain subject to a 10% or 25% commission plus a 5% transaction fee. Apps that include a clickable link to external payment will face a 15% fee, while static text directing users elsewhere incurs no charge. Third-party app stores will pay a 5% Core Technology Commission.
allowing non Webkit in all areas that hard? (Score:2)
allowing non Webkit in all areas that hard?
Twice in two days, too (Score:2)
https://apple.slashdot.org/sto... [slashdot.org]
cider (Score:2)
As a consumer..... (Score:2)
The last thing I bought on my phone through Apple's App Store was $30.
At 30%, that's supposedly as much as $4.50 "extra" that I might not have paid through another App Store. Supposing I could have saved as much as half buying elsewhere, that's barely $2.
Two lousy dollars. Why am I going to enter all of my payment info and deal with some other vendor for two lousy dollars?! I wouldn't. Not ever. If nothing else, I'm too lazy. As a consumer, I'm just not interested in other payment mechanisms.
Re: As a consumer..... (Score:2)
Huh?
Re: (Score:2)
Then don't worry your pretty little head with things like this. It doesn't sound like anyone is going to stop you from continuing to pay.
Re: As a consumer..... (Score:2)
I'm not worried. Just making conversation. Why so hostile?
My head isn't all that pretty anymore these days anyway. Brain cancer takes its toll after a while.
Four weeks, twenty papers, that’s $2 dollar (Score:2)
Four weeks, twenty papers, that’s $2 dollars.
Re: Four weeks, twenty papers, that’s $2 do (Score:2)
What four weeks?
What 20 papers?
Re: As a consumer..... (Score:2)
Not sure where the $9 is coming from, or the yearly rate.
In my example, I spent $30, not $30-year. It just one time fee.
Now, as it so happens, there is another app inlay for that has a $30/year fee. Even if I could save a whopping $9 by using a third party link or whatever the proposal is, it'd still not worth the effort of dealing with another payment outlet. Like I said, I'm lazy. Now, if I could some save $100, that might get my attention. But I'm not paying anywhere close to that for anything on my phon
Re: As a consumer..... (Score:2)
As a side note, I simply like being able to see all my subscriptions together in one place and I'm happy to pay a premium for that convenience. I bet lots of others are as well. Laziness has a cost associated with it, but plenty are happy to pay that cost.
Maybe plenty are not too. I dunno, I just doesn't see it moving the needle for a lot of people.
Re: As a consumer..... (Score:1)
Ironic! (Score:3)
I agree loosely with monitoring and regulating Apple's almost monopoly. However, it's rather ironic because Brazil is practically the very definition of stifling competition. They have huge tariffs, much worse than anything the US has ever experienced, and they have exceptionally tight import/export restrictions.
And it's also weird because almost no Brazilian can even afford an iPhone. The cost of one new there is more than twice the cost in North America because there are so many laws and people to bribe that anything that is imported at all increases in price 2-4x the cost outside of Brazil. The vast majority of people use Android phones.
Basically, business doesn't happen in Brazil until the gentlemen's club at the top get a huge slice of the pie. And they get a very huge slice indeed. They themselves have a monopoly on free enterprise....rather hypocritical if you ask me.