A trade body that represents thousands of game developers across Europe has added to the barrage of Apple criticism over the tech giant’s new business terms for EU developers.
The EU’s Digital Markets Act comes into effect in March, and last week Apple revealed a complex set of new terms around alternative app stores and payments intended to satisfy the new laws. The terms were met with criticism from Epic Games, Microsoft, and many other mobile game executives.
Now the European Game Developer Federation, the umbrella trade body that represents 23 industry associations across Europe, has entered the row. The EGDF represents over 2,500 small and medium-sized game studios and their ~40,000 staff across Europe.
Its lengthy statement on Apple’s policies describes the measures as “anticompetitive” and “disappointing”. The fee structure under the new terms were also described as “disproportionate and unjustified.”
“The new install fee-based structure makes it difficult for any app developer to compete against Apple’s own services like the Apple App Store,” it said. “It creates a disincentive for game developers to start distributing their games through third-party marketplaces or process their in-game payments through third-party payment systems. Furthermore, the EUR 1 million credit line threshold to become a marketplace creates an artificial market access barrier for new third-party marketplaces.”
The EGDF called for “swift and robust enforcement actions” from EU legislators if Apple is found to be implementing the DMA’s policies incorrectly. “Unfortunately, the way Apple is implementing DMA raises several concerns and introduces multiple unjustified limitations,” the EGDF continued.
It also said that “Apple must not be allowed to prevent direct competition between Apple and 3rd party payment systems,” and the tech giant must ensure that the notarization and approval process for alternative app store developers doesn’t “create market access barriers”.
The trade body went on to warn against Apple’s use of “excessive and unnecessarily alarming warning notifications designed to scare users from using third-party payments.”
It concluded that the new policies could damage the small and medium-sized businesses it represents, only benefitting existing industry giants. It also criticised EU lawmakers for weak legislation.
“Due to regulatory uncertainty and poor enforcement of EU law, global industry giants will get a head start on introducing alternative third-party mobile marketplaces in the EU,” it added.
“European SME game publishers will likely only be able to take the financial risk to exploit the new market opportunities once there is more clarity on whether or not the new Apple fee structure is in line with the EU rules.”
