Apple’s response to allegations of anti-competitive behaviour

As the CEO of Apple, Tim Cook, prepares to speak in front of the U.S. House Judiciary Antitrust Subcommittee to defend allegations of anti-competitive behavior, the three-page antitrust argument Tim Cook will make in the hearing is available on the Internet.

The antitrust hearing will take place tomorrow at 12:00 p.m. Eastern Time. In addition to Tim Cook, the hearing will also feature CEOs of Facebook, Amazon, and Google.

Apple CEO Tim Cook’s statement

In his testimony, Cook talks about how being held accountable is important and goes on to state “But we make no concession on the facts”, and plans to dispute claims that Apple is anti-competitive and its App Store rules are unfair.

“I am here today because scrutiny is reasonable and appropriate. We approach this process with respect and humility. But we make no concession on the facts.”

Cook also goes on to state that Apple’s commissions are comparable to those charged by its competitors:

“Apple’s commissions are comparable to or lower than commissions charged by the majority of our competitors. And they are vastly lower than the 50 to 70 percent that software developers paid to distribute their work before we launched the App Store”

Cook also emphasizes the fact that Apple has not raised commissions or added fees since the launch of the App Store and talks about the criteria of the commission the company charges:

“For the vast majority of apps on the ‌App Store‌, developers keep 100% of the money they make. The only apps that are subject to a commission are those where the developer acquires a customer on an Apple device and where the features or services would be experienced and consumed on an Apple device.”

Apple’s Phil Schiller defends App Store commission rate

Additionally, senior vice president of worldwide marketing Phil Schiller has defended the 30 percent commission Apple takes from App Store purchases, in an interview with Reuters. Schiller stated that the company’s commission rate is fair, and it ensures equality for all developers:

“One of the things we came up with is, we’re going to treat all apps in the ‌App Store‌ the same – one set of rules for everybody, no special deals, no special terms, no special code, everything applies to all developers the same. That was not the case in PC software. Nobody thought like that. It was a complete flip around of how the whole system was going to work,” Schiller said.

The tech giant is currently facing an antitrust probe by the EU and an anticompetitive behavior investigation by the Department of Justice for its App Store rules and commission rate.