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It feels like courts are not doing a good job promoting "competition". - Apple shouldn't be able to charge for external payments, come on. - Force prominent d
by concinds 10mo ago
It feels like courts are not doing a good job promoting "competition".
- Apple shouldn't be able to charge for external payments, come on.
- Force prominent disclosure of refund policies. Epic Games doesn't allow them for IAP. Apple does. Epic knows exactly how predatory that is, betting some kids will find ways to spend thousands and the parents will be helpless. Ideally you'd have a law mandating refunds, but without that, there should be mandatory disclosure on the IAP screen, at least for microtransaction games. You can't have fair "competition" when you have an information asymmetry, and if these rulings don't mandate that, you'll open the floodgate for these gaming companies to screw over parents.
- arrosenberg 10mo agoAntitrust laws were written in the early 1900s and updated through the 1950s. Credit cards weren't available until 1966 and didn't become widely used until the 1990s. Digital platforms weren't a thing until the late 90s/early 2000s and the Apple app store didn't exist until 2008. The courts can only enforce the laws on the books. Congress needs to update the laws, but they won't because they are hopelessly corrupt :(
- lesuorac 10mo agoA lot of laws don't need updating. Courts don't allow you to submit false evidence yet somehow they need to update their produces to handle AI generated false submissions? The issue is enforcement. Plain and simple. The anti-trust on the books are fine; no more amount of written laws will make regulators regulate.
- arrosenberg 10mo agoLina Khan did try and regulate. She had some successes, but the major cases w/r/t concentration of power against Microsoft, Amazon, Google, Meta and Apple have all moved slowly and (so far) failed to result in break ups.
- lapcat 10mo ago> - Force prominent disclosure of refund policies. Epic Games doesn't allow them for IAP. Apple does. Apple has no official App Store refund policy, either for IAP or for upfront paid apps. I've already looked for one. There's of course a form to request a refund, but refunds are entirely at Apple's discretion, for any reason or no reason, and Apple often exercises its discretion to refuse refunds.
- raw_anon_1111 10mo agoI have never had Apple to refuse a refund and I’ve had an iTunes account since 2003
- lapcat 10mo ago> I have never had Apple to refuse a refund Good for you, but you're only one user out of more than a billion. > I’ve had an iTunes account since 2003 I'm not sure how that's relevant, because the App Store opened in 2008. Also, Apple had a different CEO at the time.
- raw_anon_1111 10mo agoThe App Store was built on iTunes and used the same backend. The refund process hasn’t changed since then. Funny enough before the App Store you could buy Apple curated apps for your iPod. Have you heard reports of Apple not granting refunds?
- lapcat 10mo ago> The App Store was built on iTunes and used the same backend. The refund process hasn’t changed since then. I'm not talking about the technical process. Like I already said, "There's of course a form to request a refund". > Have you heard reports of Apple not granting refunds? Yes, many. Indeed, I've heard it from my own customers, as I'm an App Store developer myself.
- midtake 10mo agoWhy shouldn't Apple be able to charge whatever the fuck they want on their own platform, while users of their platform can? Now Sweeney can sell vbux to kids and Apple has to just grin and bear it?
- mirzap 10mo agoApple needs to be broken up and separated from the App Store. Apple sells devices, and I buy one expecting to own it outright. When you own something, you should be able to install whatever you want without interference from Apple. How is the iPhone different from the Macs? I can install anything I want from any source on the Mac, but I can't do that on the iPhone. Doesn't make any sense.
- jncfhnb 10mo agoBecause they’re forcing people to use their platform
- samdoesnothing 10mo agoOh yeah those pesky armed thugs that go around forcing you to buy Apple products sure are annoying... Nobody is getting forced to use the Apple platform.
- jncfhnb 10mo agoI bought a phone. It’s my phone. It’s not Apple’s phone. Apple can fuck off telling me what I’m allowed to do with my phone.
- samdoesnothing 10mo agoWhoever owns the device can do what they want with it, Apple cannot tell you what you're allowed to do with your phone. You're making up a scenario in your head. This goes both ways - when Apple produces a phone, they own it and they're also free to load whatever software they want onto it. They then enter into voluntary transactions with others, in which the ownership of the phone is transferred along with the right to load whatever software is desired. If you can't figure out how to load your desired software onto an iPhone, don't buy one. But it's certainly not Apples problem at that point since, as you said, they no longer have a right to any say in how that device is used, and thus also give up any responsibilities you seem to desire.
- tick_tock_tick 10mo ago> Force prominent disclosure of refund policies. 100% agree Apple should be forced to have a big banner on explicitly stating they have no refund policy and it's all whatever they feel like this week. Which funny enough is also basically their app approval process.