If you have been following the tech world, you know that Apple is usually seen as the greedy war lord of the industry, sparing no one from its App Store fees. However, in what might be a historic decision, the company has waived off its commission for Facebook’s online events temporarily and in a limited fashion, after the social media giant publicly shamed the company for denying to do it.
Let’s start from the top. As we all know, coronavirus has started a dark age in human history, making it impossible for small and new businesses to thrive without help. Facebook decided to offer that help, by allowing people to hold paid online events on its platform, without having to pay any fees to the company. However, during the announcement, the company also mentioned that Apple users will not be able to hold these events for “free,” since the company has denied Facebook’s request to waive off its commission fee.
However, it looks like public shaming works after all, as Apple has finally announced that it will not charge any fee for Facebook’s online events, at least for a short while. The decision is extremely rare, as Apple requires all app developers on its platform to pay a 30% commission to the company in lieu of using the platform for paid products/services.
“The App Store provides a great business opportunity for all developers, who use it to reach half a billion visitors each week across 175 countries. To ensure every developer can create and grow a successful business, Apple maintains a clear, consistent set of guidelines that apply equally to everyone,” Apple said. This basically shows that Apple is setting a deadline for Facebook to get its practices in line by the end of the year.
Thus, as expected, Facebook isn’t entirely happy about the decision, with Facebook spokesperson Joe Osborne stating passive aggressively, “Apple has agreed to provide a brief, three-month respite after which struggling businesses will have to, yet again, pay Apple the full 30% App Store tax.”
This comes after Spotify, Epic Games, Match Group, and Basecamp have all come together to join a non profit organization that plans to advocate for regulatory and legal actions against the tech giant’s app store policies. Thus, if this is Apple’s definition of rehabilitation measures, the company is certainly not very good about it.
