William Gallagher
A number of organizations including the founders of the libertarian, conservative Koch Group, and games developer Roblox, have filed court briefings in support of Apple's position in Epic Games vs Apple.
As the deadline for "friend of the court" briefings ended on Thursday, March 31, 2022, companies backing Apple filed documentation detailing their support for the company. It follows similar submissions from those backing Epic Games, including Microsoft, and US states plus the DOJ.
According to Bloomberg, supporting briefs were filed by a range of organizations, including the ACT-App Association, the Computer & Communications Industry Association, the Washington Legal Foundation, and a group of what are described as national security experts and scholars.
Most significantly, Bloomberg says that the Koch Group has also filed its support for Apple. The Americans for Prosperity Foundation, funded by the Koch brothers was reported the first to file.
Reuters claims that online gaming platform Roblox also filed in support of Apple's position against Epic Games's argument that the App Store is anticompetitive.
"Apple's process for review and approval of apps available on the App Store enhances safety and security," said Roblox in the filing seen by Reuters, "and provides those apps greater legitimacy in the eyes of users."
Roblox has previously been criticized by Epic Games for how it allegedly benefits from preferential treatment by Apple.
The March 31, 2022 deadline concludes the court's acceptance of submissions supporting either company. The appeal process over the original ruling against Epic, is now continuing, but a hearing is not expected until 2023.
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Roblox hypocrisy. They make all their money from Robux, a currency parents buy on their website, and they don’t require to split that with Apple. Since they’re a kids platform they want a direct connection with the parents (if Apple is collecting the payments they don’t have any way to interact with the parents anymore).
So Roblox benefits from not having to share revenues with Apple AND Apple being their quality assurance gateway for content deployment.
Ofcourse they want to file their support, because they have to show their investors that they care about kids security. Ofcourse they file their support because they are in a great position where they have nothing to lose, and parents as the buyer will logically locate the website to buy a virtual currency, whereas Epic Games has a completely different audience and model (a more common one) that hurts from the App Store dominance.
Roblox Corporation is a deeply, deeply unethical company that exploits children. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTMF6xEiAaY
This is from the ACT-App web site:
Your Data is Facebook's Reward, Says Congress
The bills’ proponents are willing to open up unfettered access to your data, device features like your camera and microphone, and even your wallet to Facebook and to blatant fraudsters, in order to achieve their antitrust expansion priorities. Funny how their interests line up neatly with those of Facebook, which, if the bills were enacted, stands to rake back billions in advertising revenue lost when consumers chose not to be tracked across apps on their phones. Of course, the changes these bills force on app stores would benefit the largest companies that do business on the platforms, like Facebook, while hurting App Association member companies the most. If consumers lose trust in the app stores, the resulting reluctance to download new software hits the smallest app makers the hardest.
Small Business Pain is Facebook’s Gain
Facebook clearly places a high value on the ability to evade software platform-imposed restrictions on its data collection and monetization activities. S. 2992 and S. 2710 do not just provide wiggle room, they provide a wide avenue with formidable federal enforcement capabilities keeping the avenue free of obstacles. Unfortunately, that road would be paved with App Association member prospects and the consumer harms certain to result from an ad-supported environment dependent on manipulation, which federal policy would protect, not prohibit.
Congress should ditch these ill-conceived antitrust bills and focus on what consumers and small businesses really want – comprehensive national privacy legislation.
https://actonline.org/2022/03/14/why-is-congress-putting-facebooks-profits-over-small-business/