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Re:Upcoming price and tax changes for apps and in-app purchases by Someone on Tuesday September 20, 2022 @07:22AM (#32910271)
> Would be all well and awesome if you had any freedom of choice on Apple's platform

I don’t see how that is an argument against ”Yes, Apple can dictate terms in its own store the same way that your local grocer can.”. You don’t have freedom of choice as to who to buy from at your local grocer, either.

I think that, in principle, companies creating a market should be able to decide what gets sold there and demand any cut of sales they want.

That also is what I think laws say in most countries. It’s fairly normal with game consoles, for example, and I expect you can’t sell merchandise from studios competing with Disney (if they still exist) in Disneyland or sell ice cream there without Disney taking a significant cut, or sell Shell products at an Exxon pump.

The big question, though, is whether the market power of a few players in mobile apps is so undesirable that action is necessary, and if so, whether existing laws are sufficient to correct the issue, or whether the rules of the game should change and if so, how.

I think law will be changed, but how, I’m not sure about. Any law saying “this applies only to companies Foo, Bar and Baz” will be shut down in courts, so arguments must be formulated as to what exactly is wrong with the current situation, and decisions will have to be made as to whether those rules also should apply to, for example, game consoles.

Re:Upcoming price and tax changes for apps and in-app purchases by qeternity on Tuesday September 20, 2022 @08:12AM (#32910611)
> You don’t have freedom of choice as to who to buy from at your local grocer, either.

Exactly, and this isn't a problem because you have plenty of choice as to which grocer you patronize.

There are plenty of mobile app stores. If you don't like Apple's, then grab an Android and use Amazon's.

Re:Upcoming price and tax changes for apps and in-app purchases by ReptileMan on Tuesday September 20, 2022 @10:19AM (#32911980)
There should be a hard right that owner of general purpose devices decides what kind of software runs on them. Not the vendor.
Re:Upcoming price and tax changes for apps and in-app purchases by qeternity on Tuesday September 20, 2022 @11:25AM (#32913032)
Entire business models that most of society are perfectly happy with would disappear. I would include myself in that.

I say this just so that people with strong opinions on HN remember there are two sides to every coin.