EPC joins recently developed coalition for App Fairness practices

On 24 September, organisations across industries including the EPC joined forces in creating the App Fairness Coalition. The Coalition is active both sides of the Atlantic, in Europe and the USA.

In the digital world, publishers among all other application developers, have experienced exploitative treatment by the app store owners. Access to and remuneration from app stores are a fundamental part of the publishers business models, hence the need for fair practices from intermediaries.  Therefore, the aim of the Coalition is to advocate for freedom of choice and fair competition from app stores, and to ensure fairness in the app world.

With a strong focus on Apple, the Coalition has presented 10 App Store Principles that the app stores should adhere to. The principles include, retrieved from the Coalitions website:

1. No developer should be required to use an app store exclusively, or to use ancillary services of the app store owner, including payment systems, or to accept other supplementary obligations in order to have access to the app store.

2. No developer should be blocked from the platform or discriminated against based on a developer’s business model, how it delivers content and services, or whether it competes in any way with the app store owner.

3. Every developer should have timely access to the same interoperability interfaces and technical information as the app store owner makes available to its own developers.

4. Every developer should always have access to app stores as long as its app meets fair, objective and nondiscriminatory standards for security, privacy, quality, content, and digital safety.

5. A developer’s data should not be used to compete with the developer.

6. Every developer should always have the right to communicate directly with its users through its app for legitimate business purposes.

7. No app store owner or its platform should engage in self-preferencing its own apps or services, or interfere with users’ choice of preferences or defaults.

8. No developer should be required to pay unfair, unreasonable or discriminatory fees or revenue shares, nor be required to sell within its app anything it doesn’t wish to sell, as a condition to gain access to the app store.

9. No app store owner should prohibit third parties from offering competing app stores on the app store owner’s platform, or discourage developers or consumers from using them.

10. All app stores will be transparent about their rules and policies and opportunities for promotion and marketing, apply these consistently and objectively, provide notice of changes, and make available a quick, simple and fair process to resolve disputes

Follow this link to the Coalitions press release.