Epic, Spotify, and others take on Apple with “Coalition for App Fairness” - Ars Technica

Exactly how much power app store owners should have over developers has been a contentious issue lately, and now several high-profile app developers are banding together to form the "Coalition for App Fairness." The group 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.".

They include Epic Games, which had the smash-hit game Fortnite banned from the App Store for implementing its own in-app payment system; Spotify, which filed an antitrust complaint against Apple in the EU over Apple's 30 percent cut of sales; ProtonMail, whose CEO said Apple was holding developers "hostage" with the 30 percent fee; and also Basecamp, which called Apple's policies "exploitative" after updates to its Hey email app were blocked for using the same non-Apple billing technique that Netflix uses.

The website exclusively targets Apple's App Store with three main issues: anti-competitive policies that favor Apple's apps over competitors, the 15-30 percent fee in the app store being too high, and Apple's ban on competing app stores and payment methods.

The group compares Apple's 30 percent fee to the 5 percent cut charged from "other payment providers" like credit card companies, and it also says Apple charges "600% more." An app store is more than just a payment provider since it handles hosting, SDK and app store development, app screening, and support.

But it's hard to look at Apple's $15 billion in App Store revenue and claim the company can't afford to charge less.