| ▲ | concinds 2 days 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. |
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| ▲ | arrosenberg 2 days ago | parent | next [-] |
| Antitrust 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 :( |
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| ▲ | lesuorac 2 days ago | parent [-] | | A 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 2 days ago | parent [-] | | Lina 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. |
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| ▲ | tick_tock_tick 2 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| > 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. |
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| ▲ | lapcat 2 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| > - 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. |
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| ▲ | raw_anon_1111 2 days ago | parent [-] | | I have never had Apple to refuse a refund and I’ve had an iTunes account since 2003 | | |
| ▲ | lapcat 2 days ago | parent [-] | | > 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 2 days ago | parent [-] | | The 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 2 days ago | parent [-] | | > 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. |
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| ▲ | midtake 2 days ago | parent | prev [-] |
| Why 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? |
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| ▲ | mirzap 2 days ago | parent | next [-] | | Apple 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 2 days ago | parent | prev [-] | | Because they’re forcing people to use their platform | | |
| ▲ | samdoesnothing 2 days ago | parent [-] | | Oh 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 2 days ago | parent [-] | | I 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 2 days ago | parent [-] | | Whoever 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. | | |
| ▲ | jncfhnb 2 days ago | parent [-] | | Jail breaking the phone is not sufficient for fair play. Apple is actively preventing competition for app stores on the iPhone. And in other countries they’ve already lost the battle. | | |
| ▲ | samdoesnothing 21 hours ago | parent [-] | | > Apple is actively preventing competition for app stores on the iPhone. Walmart is actively preventing competition for grocery stores inside Walmarts. Not everything is a monopoly and not everything needs to be totally competitive.... | | |
| ▲ | jncfhnb 13 hours ago | parent [-] | | Walmart owns Walmart’s. Apple doesn’t own my phone. Again, Apple can fuck off. |
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