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Comment by sebmellen | Hacker News Reader

Maybe I’m too cynical, but how will Apple get out of this? What’s the trick they’ll use this time?

After all, this is only a “preliminary view.”

If I was Tim Apple, probably allow third party payment providers (from a list of Apple-approved providers that have to handle disputes, unsubs etc in an approved way). And then charge a per-download fee to apps which offer in-app subscriptions without using Apple's payment option.

Slightly more hidden anti competitive behavior is still that.

It would inevitably lead to claims that alternative app stores should be permitted but it solves the present problem and pushes the second issue a good few years into the future (given the speed that these inquiries move at)

For sure, but it seems like most law makers are easily distracted by some mirrors and a bit of smoke. I'm not sure the EU won't be, but that we've gotten this far provides some hope.

Margrethe Vestager (the european commissioner for competition since 2014) is not that kind of fool, if you look at her history since she got that job. And since 2019 she's also been named "President of the European Commission for A Europe Fit for the Digital Age" so I think this matter is not something she will ignore easily.

She's one of the absolute best thing to happen to the EU, and has proven to be willing to do what it takes to protect competitivity on the market.

On HN she's often seen in tech news and thus could appear to be "against US companies only" but far from it, eg in 2019 she blocked the giant merger of Alstom and Siemens trains divisions against the will of both the German and French government.

They might just increase their fees. Or increase their pricing on other products.

It's a "preliminary finding". It can, and presumably will, be appealed.

They cut the 30% tax down in some cases(I am still waiting for the fanboys to admit that this would never had happened if not for the large number of investigations running).

Next will probably give to EU guys a convoluted way to unlock you phone but will shame you for it, probably put a watermark on a screen that you are a communist or pedo if you use the unlock device feature.

Apple needs a Microsoft moment, a moment where they realize what are their strengths and focus on that and stop with the FUD and anticompetitive bullshit.

> Next will probably give to EU guys a convoluted way to unlock you phone

This is the end game. Jailbreaking should be a supported feature. What they'll actually do is most likely expanding features for side-loading with enterprise certificates, improving solutions like Alt Store.

I disagree with supported. I think jailbreaking is in good place right now. No company should be force to fix phones that we cause harm to due to breaking into, but companies should also not be allowed to claim that that alone is the reason a product is broken without evidence.

I can’t imagine being forced to support a misuse of a product I develop outside of the scope Of it’s advertised intentions if it directly leads to the products deterioration.

Mobile carriers were locking their devices and even if you owned the phone you had to pay some guy to unlock it for you to use it with other carriers(or buy a new phone). Unlocking the device was just a software thing, no risk to cause problems . Companies were forced to give you the code to unlock the device(if you own it) and now the devices are already unlocked(not sure if is a law or companies realized that it was a stupid idea to lock stuff by default if I buy it and then have to implement an unlock customer support line . And it makes sense, you just hate the company more if you feel they are malicious and lock you.

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