Epic Games, Spotify Form ‘Coalition for App Fairness’ to ‘Fight Back’ Against Apple’s Policies

The tech community is under heat following Apple and Epic Games’ clash over App Store policies. The latest comes in as a range of companies form a coalition called the “Coalition for App Fairness” in order to highlight issues pertaining to developers and Apple.

Epic Games, Spotify, and Other Companies Join Hands to Form a Coalition Against Apple’s App Ecosystem

The coalition describes itself as an organization and it has set out a ten-point plan on its website and hopes to see changes accordingly. It describes itself as  “an independent nonprofit organization founded by industry-leading companies to advocate for freedom of choice and fair competition across the app ecosystem.” The coalition is based in Washington D.C. and Brussels, and aims to lead legal and regulatory changes with regards to what it says are three key issues; “anti-competitive policies,” “30 percent app tax,” and “no consumer freedom.”

Read the ten points below for more insights on the purpose and existence of the organization:

• No developer should be required to use an app store exclusively, or to use ancillary services of the app store owner, including payment systems, or to accept other supplementary obligations in order to have access to the app store.
• No developer should be blocked from the platform or discriminated against based on a developer’s business model, how it delivers content and services, or whether it competes in any way with the app store owner.
• Every developer should have timely access to the same interoperability interfaces and technical information as the app store owner makes available to its own developers.
• Every developer should always have access to app stores as long as its app meets fair, objective and non-discriminatory standards for security, privacy, quality, content, and digital safety.
• A developer’s data should not be used to compete with the developer.
• Every developer should always have the right to communicate directly with its users through its app for legitimate business purposes.
• No app store owner or its platform should engage in self-preferencing its own apps or services, or interfere with users’ choice of preferences or defaults.
• No developer should be required to pay unfair, unreasonable or discriminatory fees or revenue shares, nor be required to sell within its app anything it doesn’t wish to sell, as a condition to gain access to the app store.
• No app store owner should prohibit third parties from offering competing app stores on the app store owner’s platform, or discourage developers or consumers from using them.
• All app stores will be transparent about their rules and policies and opportunities for promotion and marketing, apply these consistently and objectively, provide notice of changes, and make available a quick, simple and fair process to resolve disputes.

The coalition includes major companies siding against Apple’s policies and includes Epic Games, Spotify, Tile, Blix, Blockchain, Basecamp, Deezer, Match, News Media Europe, ProtonMail, SkyDemon, the European Publisher’s Council, Prepear, and others that had conflicts with Apple in the past. The coalition is also open for other developers and companies to join in order to “fight back” against Apple’s app ecosystem.

What do you think about the new coalition? Do you think it is enough to make Apple change its mind? Let us know in the comments.

The post Epic Games, Spotify Form ‘Coalition for App Fairness’ to ‘Fight Back’ Against Apple’s Policies by Ali Salman appeared first on Wccftech.