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> the judge pointed out that the 30 percent rate that Apple collects is the "industry rate" collected by PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo, Amazon, Walmart, Best Buy,
by rbecker 6y ago
> the judge pointed out that the 30 percent rate that Apple collects is the "industry rate" collected by PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo, Amazon, Walmart, Best Buy, Google, and more. "It's all 30 percent and you just want to gloss over it," the judge said to Epic's lawyers.
Justifying lax antitrust with the fact that other, similar market-power abuses, have also been permitted in the current lax antitrust atmosphere... as close to circular logic as it gets.
- jpttsn 6y agoSo you think Apple is abusing its extraordinary monopoly power by... charging what everyone else is charging? I think legally it makes a pretty big difference: abusing a monopoly is considered a social bad because and to the extent that it results in higher prices for consumers.
- Jare 6y ago> So you think Apple is abusing its extraordinary monopoly power by... charging what everyone else is charging? By not allowing anyone to charge differently on iDevices.
- jpttsn 6y agoIf they had a monopoly, they should do better than 30% though? Chums like Google who don’t have the monopoly charge 30%. Hell, Twitch takes 50%, right? If Apple is the only game in town they should charge like 99%. Developers have no choice, right?
- rbecker 6y ago> charging what everyone else is charging? "Everyone else" being other middle-men with enormous market power? > higher prices for consumers. Monopoly and market power can also kill companies that "should have" prospered, depriving consumers of choice. Like the supermarket that gives preferential treatment to products owned by the same conglomerate, or the search giant that prioritizes its own services [1]. I would consider that a social bad as well. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24633387 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24633387