Andrew Orr
Match Group, owner of popular dating app Tinder, is the latest company to file an antitrust case against Apple to protest the "excessive" 30% fee for publishing in the App Store.
The newly-discovered case has been filed in India, making it the third such case based in the country, although Match is the first foreign entity to file against Apple there.
The filing claims that Apple customers in countries other than the U.S. prefer to use third-party payment systems, such as transfer systems backed by the government.
Match's head of global government relations Mark Buse, claims in the suit that Apple uses its dominant position on its own platforms to shut out competing payment systems.
Apple's presence in India
Other similar lawsuits have been filed against Apple in India, accusing the company of similar behavior. In September 2021 a non-profit organization based in the country filed an antitrust case against the iPhone maker.
Apple tried to prevent this investigation, saying its market share within India was "insignificant" at between 0% and 5% of the total market. The Competition Commission of India (CCI) ultimately issued a probe to investigate. That probe also inquired if Apple uses app data collected from potential competitors to improve its own services.
About 87% of apps in the Indian version of Apple's App Store pay no commissions, although Match argues that Tinder is one of the country's top dating apps. Data from Sensor Tower showed that 51% of consumer spending in the top five dating apps during Q2 2022 can be attributed to Tinder.
Match goes further, however, alleging that Apple views ride-sharing apps in India as physical goods and services, which lets them offer third-party payment systems according to App Review Guidelines. Match argues that these apps perform "a similar matchmaking function" to a dating app such as its own.
Apple and antitrust
Since the App Store payment saga started with Epic Games sued Apple in 2020 over payments in its game Fortnite, Apple has reduced the App Store commission fee under certain circumstances.
For developers who make less than one million per year from the App Store, their commission will decrease to 15% instead of the usual 30%.
The CCI will now investigate all three cases against Apple in India.
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9 Comments
Is Tinder available on the Google Play store in India? Does Google Play charge the same 30%/15% commission fees in India? What percentage of the smartphone industry does Android represent in India? (I did a quick search with Google and 95% of India uses Android, while 3% uses iOS.) Why is Tinder going after 3% of the market in India and not complaining about the other 95%?
Is Tinder asking for the chance to pay Apple for all the free services it provides in lieu of the 15% fee that it pays? Or are they just looking for a free handout?
If Apple dropped its fee to 10% the same regulators would be having a go for anticompetitive behaviour. For leveraging its economies of scale to keep out competitors.
Match Group still operates in Russia, so screw that company.
Source: https://som.yale.edu/story/2022/over-1000-companies-have-curtailed-operations-russia-some-remain
>Match goes further, however, alleging that Apple views ride-sharing apps in India as physical goods and services, which lets them offer third-party payment systems according to App Review Guidelines. Match argues that these apps perform "a similar matchmaking function" to a dating app such as its own.<
Another idiotic statement from one of the Three Stooges of CEO's (the other two being Sweeney of Epic and Ek of Spotify).
Apple do not collect a commission from the sale of the physical goods that the free ride-sharing apps provides. If the rider had to pay a membership fee to access ride-sharing services using an app, then Apple would collect a commission on that fee, if the membership fee was paid through the app. Just like how Apple would collect a commission on Amazon Prime membership fee if paid for using the app, but not on the physical goods that the Prime members purchase from Amazon using the app.
Tinder charges a subscription fee to members that wants access to the digital contact information of potential match ups. If the Tinder got paid for providing the "physical" contact of a potential match up, then the CEO of Match should be driving around in a Cadillac that can be classified as a "pimpmobile".