The Paris Commercial Court sentenced Apple to a fine of 1 million euros on Monday for its unfair practices on the App Store. The Apple firm is accused of having imposed unbalanced conditions on mobile application developers.
The complaint issued by Bercy dates back to 2017. The Minister of Economy and Finance, Bruno Le Maire, accused Apple and Google of “imposing tariffs” on start-ups when they negotiate the sale of their applications to Google and Apple who “also recover the data”, and to be able to “unilaterally modify the contracts”.
This attack caused Apple to react at the time: “We are proud to have strong relationships with tens of thousands of developers across France, who have earned 1 billion euros on the App Store. (…) We are fully prepared to share our story before the French courts and to clarify this misunderstanding. In the meantime, we will continue to help French developers achieve their dreams and support French students in their learning to code through our coding program. »
In the judgment that AFP was able to consult, the court retained the “significant imbalance” and “significant legal and economic insecurity”, the developers being in particular unable to challenge the suspension of an application or to renegotiate the terms of the contract with Apple.
DMA refunds App Store cards in Europe
But, according to AFP, the court took into account 6 grievances out of the 11. Those relating in particular to the exclusivity of the payment system or the 30% commission rate were dismissed by the judges.
Apple charges a default commission of 30% on paid sales of apps and in-app digital products made on the App Store and in iOS apps acquired from the App Store. Or, after several suitable lawsuits and class actions in several countries for a few years, Apple has granted developers of iOS applications non-App Store payments. The group also halved the commission charged on app purchases for small publishers.
Faced with the new European regulations on digital markets (DMA), Apple will also have to carry out a “rebalancing of the clauses in favor of developers” to defend the court.
“Apple believes in dynamic and competitive markets where innovation can flourish (…) We will consider this decision carefully and continue our efforts to support developers and provide a safe experience for users,” Apple responded Monday in a statement. statement to AFP.