News publishers seek better App Store deal with Apple

Apple has multiple battles on its hand right now. The company has fielded allegations of being anti-competitive by its partner developers. Epic Games is the first thing that comes to our mind with respect to that. But now, the iPhone maker is facing another round of disgruntlement, this time from the digital news publishers in the US.

According to WSJ report this week, Apple has received letter from the Digital Content Next. It is recognised as the digital media trade association in the country. This media body, through this letter is seeking a better App Store deal with Apple. The report says news publishers don’t want to pay 30 percent of their revenue cut to Apple. Instead, they want a deal similar to the one Apple has struck with Amazon.

The details of Apple’s deal with Amazon came to prominence during the recent anti-trust hearing with US Congressional Committee. It mentioned that Apple decided to lower the revenue share from the company. Amazon was paying 15 percent cut to the Cupertino-based giant.  This is how Amazon allowed in-app subscription through the App Store.

Apple-Epic Games saga raises further concerns

“We would like to know what conditions our members — high quality digital content companies — would need to meet in order to qualify for the arrangement Amazon is receiving for its Amazon Prime Video app in the App Store,” the media body wrote in the letter.

Apple is yet to comment or reply to the letter. But it would be concerning for Tim Cook and Co. that gradually more of its partners are going to leverage the supposed Amazon deal to their advantage. These developments couldn’t come at a worse time for the company, which is already facing questions over its anti-competitive practices. It will be interesting to see if the publishers also file a lawsuit against the company, following Epic Games playbook to get the decision their way.

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