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Originally Posted by salamanderjuice
Do you honestly think Amazon, Kobo, etc. don't already have their own online infrastructure and ways to process payments? Literally all Apple/Google Play offers is some app downloads they could do. Does it make sense to take 30% for that? Especially when it's not even necessarily wanted but forced?
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Apple and Google handle the in app purchases. So they get paid for it. Very obviously I know Kobo, BN, and Amazon can do this because they all literally do it and survive just fine. Well ok BN is struggling but not because of this. As to forced, again it’s not. All of your own examples sell outside the app just fine and pay nothing. All of your own examples also sell their own devices which don’t natively support buying from third parties within the device (specifically any eink Kindle and literally any Kobo available for purchase right now). You want Amazon books on a Kobo? Or Kobo books on a Kindle? Get ready for a lot more hoops to jump through than opening a browser and buying the book.
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Apple doesn't even allow most to get away with the "reader" exemption as it was basically made to keep Amazon, Spotify and Netflix on the platform and many services are forced to either have free services, IAPs through Apple or subs through Apple and now Google is doing the same.
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And without Apple or Google providing the store front and devices how many of these app developers are going to reach even a fraction of the ones they can with those storefronts and devices? Again they provide a service and get paid for it.
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As for what anti-trust laws, this is likely an essential facilities thing but IANAL. It's pretty clearly anticompetitive rent seeking anyways and I don't think platform holders should be allowed to cripple competitors on price and functionality because of their made up rules.
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They aren’t crippling anyone on price. Any competition that’s been mentioned here (Amazon, Kobo, BN, Netflix, Spotify, etc) all can and do provide payments outside of the apps. And they aren’t crippling functionality, the app developers have the choice to sell within the app or not. There’s Twitch (owned by Amazon) which allows you to buy tokens to subscribe to streamers in app, you pay a dollar more for this, but you can always pay for the same subscription without doing this. People on twitch know the in app tokens are pricier yet they still do it.
You might not like that Apple and Google do this that doesn’t make it illegal. Every party involved has a choice