Education
Airbnb expressed anti-trust issues with lawmakers during the App Store standoff
While antitrust threats increase against Apple's App Store practices, the New York Times reports on how Airbnb's vacation rental service and ClassPass' fitness class have run out of control in recent weeks. According to the study, both companies began providing virtual services as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, only for Apple to get in touch and request 30 per cent of revenue from their iOS devices.
The Times also reports that Airbnb has met with the House Judiciary's antitrust subcommittee, which will be responsible for questioning Tim Cook about iOS policies at the next hearing.
Initially, the article reported that ClassPass had also met with legislators, but had since been corrected after ClassPass had rejected the meeting.
ClassPass reported that the classes had stopped because following the commission "would entail price rises that would significantly decrease demand for these classes." Apple agreed to waive the In-App Purchase provision after the decision had been made, but the company chose not to revive the project.
The news comes the day before Apple CEO Tim Cook is expected to testify in front of the House Judiciary Committee 's anti-trust subcommittee, alongside Amazon , Google and Facebook CEOs.
Apple 's policy of taking 30 percent of payments charged by the App Store is likely to be debated during the meeting, with opponents claiming that the charge makes it more difficult to compete with Apple's first-party services. Nevertheless, Apple does not sell services that compete with Airbnb or ClassPass.
The Committee has obtained at least 1.3 million documents during its investigation, conducted five hearings and spent hundreds of hours conducting interviews as it investigates the big tech firms.
The EU has opened its own antitrust inquiry into Apple's App Store and Apple Pay practices earlier this year.
According to the NYT report, Airbnb started providing "online experiences" such as cooking classes and meditation sessions in response to the pandemic. It's an extension of the experience that it began selling alongside its conventional vacation rentals back in 2016. The New York Times reports that Airbnb is now negotiating with Apple.
Airbnb and ClassPass may not have been the first businesses to talk about Apple's App Store policies. One high-profile example came earlier this year when Basecamp became involved in a heated dispute with Apple over its 30% commission policy after releasing its Hey email service.
Apple initially blocked the iOS users from receiving updates because there was no way to sign in to the users. Eventually, it allowed the app to go to its store when Hey said that he would give free email addresses that expire after 14 days.
Despite the midst of these criticisms, the amount of revenue that Apple is receiving from services is booming. In its second quarter earnings in April, Cook announced a "all-time high" of revenue generated by Apple's services division, rising to $13.3 billion from $11.5 billion a year earlier.
"To ensure that every developer can build and grow a productive company, Apple maintains a simple , consistent set of guidelines that apply equally to all," Apple told The New York Times in a statement. It said that the requirements for its application date back to 2010.
