The apple company could be facing a very serious problem in the Japanese country. Guilty? The App Store app store, which is being investigated in the territory, because it could be violating state laws. Do you want to know more about the subject, know how Apple is defending itself and what could happen? In this post we tell you.
The Japanese Antimonopoly Law is on the table
The English-speaking portal MacRumors echoed some information shared by the Japanese website Nikkei, which explained that “App Store policies may be violating Japanese Antimonopoly Lawaccording to a report by the Japan Fair Trade Commission.
It all starts by mentioning the duopoly established by Apple and Google, since both companies are dominating the application market in that territory. That dominant position leads Japanese regulators to “want Apple and Google to allow users to choose third-party payment methods for apps and servicesinstead of forcing them to use the default options, “they report.
The fact that two companies dominate an app market, in which to buy them, you have to use Apple’s proprietary platform (and Google, in the case of the Play Store) means that, yes or yes, Apple controls all transactions and pocket commissions for each app or subscription sold through your store. And we’re not talking about this happening on a small scale, but it’s happening across a country.
The FTC (Japan Fair Trade Commission) “is asking for more regulations to suppress anti-competitive behavior and they have said that they are planning to work with the government on digital skills, for new regulations,” they explain from MacRumors.
Similarly, the Nikkei report explains that Japan could force Apple to accept third-party payment methods in the App Store. At the moment, the App Store commission rate is between 15% and 30%and taking into account the strong dominant position of the company in the country, the FTC points out that it “could be an abuse.”
What could happen from now on
We have on the table a company with a dominant position, on a national scale, in an applications market. In this market, each application that is sold has to go through Apple’s economic “hoop” and, in this “hoop”, the company pockets between 15% and 30% of the amount of each app in the form of commissions.
On the other, we have a regulatory commission that watches over non-abusive practices, in a market that is national in scope. And here, the operating system iOS 17 enters. This version is expected to “accommodate the functionality that iPhone applications can be downloaded through alternative app stores.”
Apple, in other territories, has had to give ground in this matter. One case is that of the Netherlands, where after a dispute with the country’s Authority for Consumers and Markets, they have had to include third-party payment methods in dating applications.