A number of companies have created the Coalition for App Fairness (CAF) as a way to work together to fight Apple and its App Store rules.
Coalition for App Fairness
Members of the coalition include:
- Basecamp
- Blix
- Blockchain.com
- Deezer
- Epic Games
- The European Publishers Council
- Match Group
- News Media Europe
- Prepear
- ProtonMail
- SkyDemon
- Spotify
- Tile
Calling App Store rules “onerous and arbitrary” the CAF believes it can fight for legal and regulatory changes that “preserve consumer choice and a level playing field” for app developers. These companies are frustrated with Apple’s fees and rules and don’t want Apple to interfere with their customer relationships. The announcement offers plenty of quotes from these founders and CEOs, like Ben Volach, founder of Blix:
Apple has consistently pursued a centralization and monopolization of its services, resulting in paralyzing control over app developers’ businesses that exclude, restrain and block them from Apple’s platforms. Today, app developers are dependent on Apple’s power over app distribution to operate on the essential platforms it has created and controls as the ultimate gatekeeper. It’s time for Apple to act fairly towards the ecosystem which has made it what it is today.
The Coalition for App Fairness invites more companies to join its cause.
What Does It Mean?
From the sounds of it, these companies are specifically joining together not to have greater bargaining power with Apple, but to lobby regulators who can force Apple to change in order to suit the coalition’s goals. This year Apple opened up the app review process so developers can suggest changes to the guidelines. It’s possible that these companies already tried and failed to do that, and so are forming a coalition. But they make no mention of that.