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Apple Hits a Major Roadblock as EU Targets App Store
(www.wired.com)
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this post was submitted on 25 Jun 2024
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Maybe I'm misunderstanding something about the anti-steering rule. Can someone give me an example of what this sort of thing looks like in a brick and mortar store?
Let's say you want to buy a printer from a retailer. The retailer also sells replacement ink cartridges, and so does the printer manufacturer. The manufacturer prefers that you buy the ink cartridges directly from them, because their margins are higher when they don't have to pay the retailer a cut.
To encourage customers to buy the cartridges directly from them, the manufacturer provides a link or QR code to their online ink cartridge store on the product box, printer manual, and another paper insert inside the box. The manufacturer might offer more competitive pricing than the retailer or some other enticement, like a coupon.
However, the retailer implements an anti-steering rule, preventing the printer manufacturer from providing a link or QR code to their online ink cartridge store on the product packaging, printer manual, or anything inside the box, as a requirement for the printer to appear on the retailer's shelves. (As a result of corporate consolidation, there is only one other retailer in the entire country.) This is the equivalent of what Apple is doing to apps in their App Store: preventing developers from disclosing that users can purchase subscriptions or other app-related digital goods on the developer's website.
You know, this explanation isn't wrong, but having a printer manufacturer in your analogy show up as a victim just feels wrong.
That's just the first thing that came to mind. Any product with consumable refills (razor blades, electric toothbrush heads, air/water filter replacements, etc.) would also work as an example.
You don't need metaphors. It's pretty simple.
The Spotify app should have a button that takes you to their website, where you can sign up for a premium subscription.
It doesn't have one because Apple would kick Spotify out of the App Store.
Also - all other links to the Spotify website (support, terms of service, privacy policy, etc) take you to pages where the main navigation of the website has been removed so that you can't find the signup page. Because again, Apple bans that. For the longest time apps have not allowed to have any way for users to find a signup form on a website.
That policy is now illegal in the EU (and a growing list of other countries) and Apple's attempt at compliance is a new API - only available in Europe - that informs the user that they might be a victim of theft, fraud, etc before they get taken to a website that is deliberately sandboxed... supposedly to prevent theft/fraud/etc but more likely because it makes it really difficult for Spotify to link that signup with an existing free account.
Oh and if Spotify opts to expose users to see that horror show... they'd have to pay tens of millions of dollars per year to Apple. They have so far refused to do so, meaning the new regulations have failed (well, they were failing, until the EU declared Apple's compliance efforts insufficient).