Sony accused of ‘blatant anti-competitive conduct’

Congress has raised concerns about Sony's monopoly on the gaming market in Japan, calling for an investigation into the firm's alleged "exclusionary conduct."

Senator Maria Cantwell told a Senate Finance Committee hearing: “Sony controls a monopoly of 98 percent of the high-end game market, yet Japan's government has allowed Sony to engage in blatant anti-competitive conduct through exclusive deals and payments to game publishers.”

Cantwell called on US Trade...

28 March 2023 | Gaming

Apple is working on supporting App Store alternatives

Apple is working on allowing App Store alternatives due to legislation that forces its hand.

The EU introduced the Digital Markets Act in November which requires “gatekeeper” companies to open their platforms to other companies and developers. Apple has until 6 March 2024 to comply with the act by supporting the sideloading of apps on iPhones and iPads.

Similar legislation is being considered in the US and other regions.

Google has managed to avoid facing...

14 December 2022 | App Stores

Judge rejects Apple’s bid to dismiss lawsuit by Cydia’s creator

California District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers has denied Apple’s bid to dismiss a lawsuit brought against the company by Cydia’s creator.

Cydia was a third-party app store which, as you will be well aware, is officially a no-no in Apple’s books. The store was popular among the “jailbreak” community and even pre-dates the official App Store.

The creator of Cydia, Jay Freeman (AKA ‘Saurik’), ended up shutting his app store down in...

30 May 2022 | App Stores

Apple letter urges lawmakers to reject sideloading bill

Apple has written a letter urging lawmakers to reject a bill that would force the company to allow any apps to be installed on its mobile operating systems.

The letter, addressed to Senate Judiciary Chair Dick Durbin and Republican Chuck Grassley, claims the proposed bill will hurt user privacy and security if passed.

In question is the S. 2710 bill that would allow software downloaded from the web or other sources to be “sideloaded” on iOS.

“Sideloading...

4 February 2022 | App Stores

Apple is fighting Russia’s decision to let developers promote alternative payments

Apple is requesting a judicial review of Russia’s decision that developers must be allowed to promote alternative payment options.

In August, the country’s Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) issued a warning to Apple that clause 3.1 of the App Store Guidelines – which prohibits iOS app developers from informing in-app users about the possibility to pay for their purchases outside the App Store – breaches Russian antimonopoly legislation.

FAS gave Apple until 30...

6 December 2021 | App Stores

Apple set to be charged with being anti-competitive by the EU for limiting NFC

The EU is reportedly set to charge Apple for being anti-competitive due to locking down how its NFC technology can be used.

EU antitrust regulators opened an investigation into Apple Pay in June last year over concerns that it unfairly shuts out competitors and gives Apple’s own service an advantage.

According to Reuters’ sources, the EU is currently drafting objections which are due to be sent to Apple next year.

Apple takes a notoriously “walled...

6 October 2021 | Developer

Stanford Law and GitHub launch initiative to protect open-source developers

Stanford Law and GitHub are partnering on an initiative to protect the legal rights of open-source developers.

Section 1201 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act from 1998 prohibits the circumvention of technological measures employed by, or on behalf of, copyright owners to protect access to their works.

Open-source developers regularly face takedown claims under Section 1201 but, rather than fight it, they often decide to avoid the cost and risk by just removing the...

27 July 2021 | Git

Class-action lawsuit could force Apple to compensate users for app prices

A class-action lawsuit filed in the UK wants to force Apple to compensate users for potentially inflated app prices.

Until recently, Apple took a 30 percent commission on all app sales. Most app developers feel the cut is unjustifiable and critics believe that it’s an abuse of Apple’s market dominance.

Apple claims the legal action is “meritless”.

Similar criticisms have been made about other app stores but Apple’s grip over its operating system means...

11 May 2021 | App Stores

Apple and Google ‘hold data hostage’ with their platform rules, Senate told

During a hearing, US senators were told Apple and Google “hold data hostage” with their platform rules.

The two largest mobile platform-holders are under scrutiny from the Senate anti-trust committee and smaller companies such as Spotify, Tile, and Tinder-owner Match have been airing their grievances.

Kirsten Daru, Tile's General Counsel, said: "We welcome competition but it has to be fair competition and Apple's idea of competing is patently...

23 April 2021 | App Stores

What app developers need to know about the DOJ’s formal request for encryption backdoors

When we text via Apple’s iMessage, WhatsApp, Signal, or a host of other messaging services, those messages are protected in ways communications across most other platforms are not. The reason is these select app developers use “end-to-end encryption” (or “E2EE”), which encrypts all messages before leaving the sender’s device and can only be decrypted by the recipient’s device. The only way to access and view these messages is by having the sender’s or recipient’s phone...

17 November 2020 | Hacking & Security