Match Group Assists Australian Government’s Probe Into Apple and Google

8th March 2021 Dominic Whitlock

Regulators in the United States, United Kingdom and Australia are reportedly looking into Apple and Google, and the allegations that they hold a monopoly over their respective app stores.

The ‘Coalition For App Fairness’ was founded six months ago and published a list of principles that should be adopted in order to maintain a fair and open mobile app industry. Match Group was among the first co-founders and just over a month later, more than 400 developers applied to join.

Senators from an Australian Select Committee are currently in the process of looking into app marketplaces, their anti-competitive nature and how they look after personal data.

As part of the investigation, Match Group’s Head of Global Government Relations and Policy Mark Buse told them that developers are being prevented from offering users the best possible products and services.

According to ZDNet, Buse explained: “Basically, [Apple and Google have their] own monopoly. And between the two of them, there are no other alternatives. If you want to build an app, and you want to have it distributed to consumers, you have no choice but to go through one of those two app stores.”

One of the biggest issues for developers is the mandatory 30% commission rates that they pay to the tech giants. This is particularly damaging to the smaller ones who have to charge their members more in order to make up the costs.

The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) launched its own investigation into Apple’s alleged monopoly at the end of last week.

An official statement from the CMA said: “The CMA’s investigation will consider whether Apple has a dominant position in connection with the distribution of apps on Apple devices in the UK and, if so, whether Apple imposes unfair or anti-competitive terms on developers using the App Store, ultimately resulting in users having less choice or paying higher prices for apps and add-ons.”