Telegram, the messaging app, becomes the latest company to file a formal antitrust complaint to the EU over the Apple App Store.
In the letter to EU competition chief Margrethe Vestager, Telegram, which has more than 400m users, argued that Apple must “allow users to have the opportunity of downloading software outside of the App Store”.
Ms. Vestager had in June announced two other antitrust investigations into Apple, one of which concerned the App Store.
Telegram now joins Spotify and Rakuten as companies that have complained to the EU that the app store represents a monopoly power. At the moment, developers have to accept Apple’s terms, including a 30pc commission on in-app purchases, in order to be allowed to list their apps in the AppStore.
In the complaint, Telegram said Apple’s argument that the App Store commission keeps it running is nonsense. “Every quarter, Apple receives billions of dollars from third-party apps. Meanwhile, the expenses required to host and review these apps are in the tens of millions, not billions of dollars. We know that because we at Telegram host and review more public content than the App Store ever will.” The company stated.
