Apple has rejected allegations of monopolistic trade practices leveled against it by fellow tech companies, Spotify, Tile and Rakuten. In an online conference this week, Daniel Matray, head of Apple’s App Store and Media Services, claimed that neither the company’s App Store eco-system, nor its digital payment service, are dominant anywhere around the world. “We compete with a wide variety of companies, Google, Samsung, Huawei, Vivo, LG, Lenovo, and many more”, he said.
He further asserted that even the company’s bread-and-butter hardware business faces competition from powerful rivals. “In fact, Apple does not have a dominant position in any market. We face strong competition in every category. (That includes) tablets, wearables, desktop and notebook computers, maps, music, payments, messaging, and more”, he said.
Matray’s defense comes just weeks after fellow US tech firm, Tile, and Japanese tech company, Rakuten, filed antitrust complaints against Apple with the European Commission. While the former accused Apple of abusing its leadership position in the market to favor its own tracking app, FindMy, at the expense of third-party developers, the latter’s e-book subsidiary, Kobo, complained against the 30% commission that Apple charges for every e-book sold through its iOS app.
Matray, however, defended both those practices. According to him, 85% of the apps on App Store are free and don’t pay a dime to Apple. And as for the paid apps, they only have to pay the commission when they use its in-app payment service. What’s more, the same rules apply to all developers, large and small, he said, implying that there’s no differential treatment.
