Following yesterday’s ruling finding Apple has disregarded a U.S. court’s instructions to permit links to external purchases from within iOS apps under reasonable terms, the publisher of MacDailyNews responded with the site’s take. In case you are not already familiar, MacDailyNews has a consistently right-libertarian editorial slant. It is not one I agree with, but that has only the tiniest bit of relevance to this commentary.
Also, while the site was founded by Steve Jack, it attaches no byline to its articles and so I am uncertain who specifically wrote this tripe:
It’s too bad Gonzalez Rogers expected Apple to provide a service that she ordered for free, because it makes no sense for Apple to do such a thing. Gonzales ordered Apple to allow developers to advertise lower prices elsewhere within Apple’s App Store. It is Apple’s App Store. Despite what Epic Games wishes and misrepresents, the App Store is not a public utility. Apple built it. Apple maintains it. Apple owns it, not Epic Games or some ditzy U.S. District Judge. Advertising within Apple’s App Store has value, a fee for which its owner has every right to charge, regardless of whatever the blank-eyed Gonzalez Rogers, bless her heart, expected.
I am sure there are plenty of people out there who believe Apple is entitled to run the iOS App Store as it sees fit. It is an argument with which I have sympathies outweighed by disagreements, but I get it.
What I do not get is describing a U.S. district court judge as “ditzy”.
It is an adjective invoked by MacDailyNews to describe just two people: Gonzalez Rogers and former European Commissioner for Competition Margrethe Vestager. It is an inherently sexist term — a cheap shot thrown at women who happen to have legally restricted the world’s most valuable corporation. Agree or disagree with their work, this kind of response is pathetic.
If, however, one is desperate to be a misogynist, they had better be certain the rest of their argument is airtight. And MacDailyNews falls on its face.
Gonzalez Rogers has not demanded an entirely free ride. In fact, she gave Apple substantial opportunity to explain how it arrived at (PDF) a hefty 27% commission rate for external purchases. Apple did not do so. It took hearings this year to learn it went so far as to get the Analysis Group to produce a report which happened to find (PDF) Apple was responsible for “up to 30% of a developer’s revenue”. But, Gonzalez Rogers writes, this study was not the basis for Apple’s justification for a 27% cut for external purchases, nor could it have been, because it was produced after records show Apple had already decided on that rate. It was reverse-engineered to maintain Apple’s entirely unjustified high commission rate.
To quote Gonzalez Rogers:
This is an injunction, not a negotiation. There are no do-overs once a party willfully disregards a court order. […]
And again:
Apple was afforded ample opportunity to respond to the Injunction. It chose to defy this Court’s order and manufacture post hoc justifications for maintaining an anticompetitive revenue stream. Apple’s actions to misconstrue the Injunction continue to impede competition. This Court will not play “whack-a-mole,” nor will it tolerate further delay.
Apple could have taken this up in a legally justifiable way that, plausibly, could have given it some reasonable commission on some sales. It did not do that, so now the court says no commission whatsoever is permissible. Simple. Besides, developers pay for hardware, a developer membership, and plenty of Apple’s services. They are not getting a free ride just by linking to an external payment option.
Moreover, developers do not “advertise” in the App Store. They can, but that is not what is being adjudicated in this case.
Media commentators can disagree on this ruling, on the provisions of the Digital Markets Act, and on Apple’s treatment of developers. There are many legitimate views and angles, and I think it is great to see so much discussion about this leading up to WWDC. But we can all do this without resorting to lazy sexism. Do better.