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Apple giving the 3% discount for alternate payment processors seems extremely generous in Europe, given that Europe caps payment processing fees at extremely lo

Apple giving the 3% discount for alternate payment processors seems extremely generous in Europe, given that Europe caps payment processing fees at extremely low rates compared to the US[1]: > As a general rule, the Regulation will cap interchange fees at 0.2% of the transaction value for consumer debit cards and at 0.3% for consumer credit cards. For consumer debit cards, it also gives flexibility to Member States to define lower percentage caps and impose maximum fee amounts. So, if anything, Apple is giving a 10x discount for the alternative payment processor. Somehow the Dutch authorities seem to want payment processing to be worth .3% of transactions, unless you're Apple, in which case they want them to be worth 100x as much, and at the same time the platform/SDK licensing Apple provides to be defined as worthless. [1] https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/hr/IP_15_4585 https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/hr/IP_15_...

joshuaissac 5y ago
The caps you quoted are for credit and debit cards. Stripe, for example, charges 1.4%-2.9% in Europe.
- mullingitover 5y ago
  That's a fair point - looks like that's because Stripe is including an array of services that add value beyond basic interchange fees, similar to Apple Pay's included merchant services?
thayne 5y ago
> the platform/SDK licensing Apple provides to be defined as worthless. There's still the apple developer fee. Also, the value of the platform is itself increased by the apps made for it. Without third party apps, iOS devices would be less appealing to consumers.
- mullingitover 5y ago
  > Without third party apps, iOS devices would be less appealing to consumers. I understand this argument, however let's not forget that it's a two way street. People were buying iPhones by the millions well before a single app was sold on the platform, and there are other platforms that the third party apps could publish on. They choose to publish on iOS because, for vast numbers of developers, it is a very profitable platform for them to transact on.

joshuaissac 5y ago

The caps you quoted are for credit and debit cards. Stripe, for example, charges 1.4%-2.9% in Europe.

mullingitover 5y ago
That's a fair point - looks like that's because Stripe is including an array of services that add value beyond basic interchange fees, similar to Apple Pay's included merchant services?

thayne 5y ago

> the platform/SDK licensing Apple provides to be defined as worthless. There's still the apple developer fee. Also, the value of the platform is itself increased by the apps made for it. Without third party apps, iOS devices would be less appealing to consumers.

mullingitover 5y ago
> Without third party apps, iOS devices would be less appealing to consumers. I understand this argument, however let's not forget that it's a two way street. People were buying iPhones by the millions well before a single app was sold on the platform, and there are other platforms that the third party apps could publish on. They choose to publish on iOS because, for vast numbers of developers, it is a very profitable platform for them to transact on.