“The App Store deserves scrutiny.”Mark Zuckerbergdid not mince his words this week during an interview. According to him, the unilateral control exercised by Apple over what happens on phones in terms of applications poses a real problem. We are therefore not really surprised to learn that Facebook has joined other companies who accuse the Cupertino company of competitive behavior within the European Union.
Facebook Gaming was blocked for months on the App Store
Concretely, the social network took advantage of the consultation carried out by the European Commission within the framework of the Digital Services Act, a directive which aims to reduce the influence of GAFAM. Companies are asked if they have suffered anti-competitive behavior from other major platforms.
In detail, Mark Zuckerberg's firm first insisted on its Facebook Gaming application which would have “been affected by unfair contractual clauses and unfair practices imposed by Apple on the App Store and on iOS more broadly". We remember in fact thatthe app took months to be acceptedon the Apple store. This finally happened last August. Facebook Gaming, on the other hand, does not offer games and simply acts as a streaming service.
Secondly, Facebook is not specifically targeting Apple but attacked the announcement ofthe new feature of iOS 14which aims to prevent developers from placing advertising trackers on Apple brand devices without the latter having obtained the user's consent. The social network fears losing valuable advertising revenue, which currently still constitutes the bulk of its revenue.
