Apple offers a small concession to make App Store rules easier on Netflix and others

SAN FRANCISCO / TOKYO, Sept. 1 (Reuters) – Apple Inc. (AAPL.O) loosened App Store rules on Wednesday, allowing some content companies like Netflix Inc. (NFLX.O) to provide links to their websites so that customers can sign up for payment accounts.

The concession was part of an agreement with the Japanese antitrust regulator, which said the change was enough to close a five-year investigation into Apple that focused on video and music apps, but did not consider games.

Read also: Exclusive: Apple suffered an antitrust case in India due to payment problems from the application

The American tech giant, however, has yet to contend with a number of other legal and regulatory challenges to the rules forcing game makers to follow, including an antitrust lawsuit closely filed by Fortnite creator Epic Games.

The ban on providing separate links for so-called reading applications that provide content such as e-books, videos, and music that do not offer a free level of service was lifted, rather than requiring payment upon registration.

The change will take effect early next year and will be implemented globally, Apple said, which will maintain maximum opinion on which apps qualify as read-only apps.

Some companies said the concession was not enough.

“A limited anti-steering solution doesn’t solve all our problems,” Spotify Technology (SPOT.N) said in a statement. The music streaming company is pursuing an antitrust lawsuit against Apple before European Union competition authorities.

Apple’s App Store is at the core of the $ 53.8 billion service segment and charges commissions of between 15% and 30% of purchases made from the app.

Its rules for game creators have been one of the most controversial, especially the practice that Epic Games disputes of not allowing developers to adopt other forms of payment within applications.

This case may determine whether Apple can maintain control over which apps appear on its devices and whether it is allowed to charge developers fees.

In response to Apple’s latest announcement in its App Store, Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney accused Apple of trying to appease with insufficient partial measures.

“Apple should open iOS based on hardware, stores, payments, and services that compete individually according to their merits. Instead, they literally do a day-to-day recalculation of splitting and conquering with the hoping to get away with most of their bonding practices, ”he said on Twitter.

An official from the Japan Fair Trade Commission stressed that the scope of his investigation did not cover gambling.

“There is a possibility that there is an investigation into games as well,” he told a media briefing.

Apple has a 46.5% share of the smartphone market in Japan, where more than 30 million are sold annually.

The latest concession from the iPhone maker is the second in so many weeks. Last week it reached an agreement with a group of developers in the United States in a class action lawsuit, which ended the ban on informing users in emails of payment alternatives.

In one of its latest challenges, South Korea on Tuesday banned major app store operators, including Apple, from forcing developers to use their payment systems, effectively preventing them from charging commissions for purchases from the application.

The company faces similar legislative action in the United States and Europe.

It is also facing a new antitrust challenge similar to India that has been presented by a non-profit group, according to a source and documents seen by Reuters.

Report by Stephen Nellis in San Francisco and Tim Kelly in Tokyo; Additional reports from Kanishka Singh to Bengaluru; Written by Sayantani Ghosh; Edited by Peter Cooney and Edwina Gibbs

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