Rep. Cicilline made these comments during an interview on a recent episode of The Vergecast podcast. The conversation came up during a discussion regarding Apple rejecting an App for allowing users to register outside of the App Store, thus denying Apple 30% of the fee. Rep Cicilline felt compelled to say that, “because of the market power that Apple has, it is charging exorbitant rents – highway robbery, basically.”
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But Rep. Cicilline doesn’t stop there, he also describes the consequences of Apple’s 30% fees on all purchases through the App Store. “It’s crushing small developers who simply can’t survive with those kinds of payments,” Rep. Cicilline says, citing it as unacceptable results from Apple’s fees. He later goes on to describe how he’s heard from individuals who fear retaliation for taking issue with Apple’s fees.
The sentiment echoes the ongoing discourse regarding PC storefronts, as Epic Games and many game developers call Steam’s 30% storefront fees egregious. Epic’s own storefront takes just 12% for fees, but Steam remains incredibly popular and hasn’t adjusted its fees for most games or developers.
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Source: The Verge
