An Apple-Funded Study Compares App Store Commission Rates to Other Digital and Physical Platforms ⇥ techcrunch.com

Sarah Perez, TechCrunch:

Apple today is again taking to the press to fight back against claims of anti-competitive practices on its App Store. Last month, the company detailed the results of a commissioned study that showed how Apple wasn’t receiving a cut of revenue on the majority of App Store transactions — $519 billion in commerce. This time, Apple is touting the results of a new study that is meant to demonstrate how Apple’s App Store commission rate is similar to those of other app stores and digital content marketplaces.

The new study also comes from the Analysis Group, the same analyst group Apple used for its most recent study. The fact that Apple has tasked the firm with rolling out a series of reports to argue its case via market data indicates how seriously Apple is taking the antitrust claims.

The study is by the same authors, too, all antitrust experts. Unlike last time, though, Apple did not publish a press release on its website, though Analysis Group did. Notably, this study offers no comparison between rates in app stores and fees involved in direct sales — for instance, the relatively low interchange fees charged by credit card companies. It does, however, compare Apple’s 30% cut to the 20% profit margin of used car sales, for some reason.

Tim Cook will be testifying on Monday before the House Judiciary Antitrust Subcommittee, alongside the CEOs of Amazon, Google, and Facebook — but not Microsoft.