Apple to appeal £1.5 billion UK ruling over ‘excessive’ App Store commissions

Apple is seeking to overturn a landmark £1.5 billion ruling by the UK’s Competition Appeal Tribunal, which found the tech giant abused its dominant position by overcharging millions of British customers through inflated App Store fees. The class-action lawsuit, brought by academic Dr Rachael Kent on behalf of around 36 million consumers who made purchases between 2015 and 2024, accuses Apple of imposing commissions of up to 30% on apps and in-app purchases—far above what the tribunal deemed fair (17.5% on apps and 10% on in-app transactions). Dismissing the verdict as flawed, Apple argues its App Store fosters a “thriving and competitive” ecosystem, but the case signals growing scrutiny on Big Tech’s “Apple tax” amid a wave of similar opt-out lawsuits targeting both Apple and Google.
Robert Booth for The Guardian:
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“It’s definitely a tipping point,” said Dr Rachael Kent, an academic at King’s College London who won the £1.5bn case against Apple on behalf of 36 million UK consumers. “People are pushing back against the harms from digital worlds, which they have to be living in and through every day and the financial implications of that,” she said.
Kent added that the win in October still felt “a bit pinch me”. If Apple’s appeal fails, every person in the UK who made App Store purchases between 2015 and 2024 could be entitled to a payout.
Another of the cases is being brought by Barry Rodger, a law professor at the University of Strathclyde, on behalf of more than 2,000 app developers who he argues are collectively entitled to up to £1bn in compensation.
“Small and medium-sized app developer businesses have suffered as the result of excessive profiteering by the App Store and Google Play,” he said. His case alleges Google Play has charged “excessive, arbitrary and discriminatory commissions” against developers, with the makers of dating and games apps particularly affected.

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MacDailyNews Take: Again, 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.
Behold the sheer terror of “inflated prices” brought on by Apple’s “excessive profiteering” — namely, daring to fund the App Store that serves more than 1.4 billion iOS and iPadOS users: a total of $3-$6 per every 50 apps, on average. How can any app consumer survive such abject gouging?!2
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
Ultimately, the end user pays, regardless.
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 the government interference.

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