Apple seeks to block India antitrust case with challenge to penalty law

Apple is attempting to halt antitrust investigations in India by legally challenging a provision that permits penalties to be based on the company’s worldwide revenue, according to the country’s Competition Commission, further intensifying the standoff between New Delhi and the U.S. tech giant.
The company filed a challenge last month against the Indian antitrust law that enables the regulator to calculate fines using global turnover, arguing that the rule could result in excessively harsh penalties for violations confined solely to the Indian market.
Arpan Chaturvedi for Reuters:
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Apple argued it risks facing a fine of up to $38 billion after it was found to have breached laws in a case where Tinder-owner Match and Indian startups succeeded in convincing the watchdog the tech firm’s in-app fee hurts smaller players, and is anti-competitive.
A final decision on the case, including the fine, is still pending.
On Monday, a lawyer for the Competition Commission of India (CCI) accused Apple of trying to “stall the proceedings” dating back to 2021. Apple’s counsel urged the court to prevent the regulator from taking coercive steps.
Judges at the Delhi High Court asked the CCI to file a detailed response to Apple’s arguments.

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MacDailyNews Take: Any country or consortium of countries trying to grab 10% of Apple’s average global turnover would be committing a grossly disproportionate and patently unjust act.
The vast majority of developers who pay Apple an App Store commission, pay 15%. That amounts to 12 cents of “inflated prices” for non-free apps on average. So, if you bought 50 apps for your iPhone, it would cost you, on the average, a total of $40. Halving Apple’s commission would reduce that price to $37. Removing Apple’s commission entirely would reduce that price to $34.
Here you see the absolute horror of “inflated prices” caused by Apple trying to cover costs to run their App Stores for 2.35 billion users (and counting). A total of $3-$6 per every 50 apps, on average. How can any app consumer survive such abject gouging?!
How much did it cost developers to have their apps burned onto CDs, boxed, shipped, displayed on store shelves prior to Apple remaking the world for the better for umpteenth time? Does Apple not have costs to store, review, organize, surface, and distribute apps to 1+ billion users? – MacDailyNews, July 30, 2021
Either Apple continues to take App Store commissions to pay for their infrastructure costs or they increase hardware and/or subscription prices to pay for government interference.
As usual, Big Government is a meddling middleman just attempting to move costs around in order to appeal to their base: “We fought the big, bad corporation meanies and saved you oh-so-much money on your apps (a whole 12 cents per). (We won’t talk about your other costs – hardware, subscription rates, etc. – that were increased in order to compensate for our meddling). We think you’re stupid. Vote for us.”

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