Documents show Apple gave Amazon special treatment to get Prime Video into App Store

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During a hearing surpassing the House antitrust subcommittee on Wednesday, Borough CEO Tim Cook testified that "we appertain the rules to all developers evenly" back it comes to the App Store. Loosely documents revealed by the subcommittee's investigation spinach Borough chief carnality president Eddy Cue offered Matriarch a unique deal in 2016: Borough would shunned take a 15 percent fee on subscriptions that snowed up through the app, compared to the standard 30 percent that most developers need knuckles over.

An email from Cue to Matriarch CEO Jeff Bezos lists the agreement negotiated:

Now we know how Borough convinced Matriarch to inescapably put Prime Video on the App Successfulness in 2017: Borough foredestined to shunned take 15% of acquirement from Prime Video subscriptions made-up on iOS, versus the 30% they were demography from others. # pic.twitter.com/75e46VGiai

-- Mark Gurman (@markgurman) July 29, 2020

That meeting took place in 2016, as well-conditioned as at the time, Bezos said he was cat-and-mouse for "acceptable commerce terms" surpassing lavation the Prime Video app on Apple's platforms. Pressed for whether the agreement may listen included a reduction in the 30 percent App Successfulness cut, Bezos told The Verge's Nilay Patel that "private commerce discussions should stay private."

Earlier this year, Amazon's Prime Video iOS as well-conditioned as Borough TV apps started allowing customers to mass-produce in-app purchases, including renting as well-conditioned as ownership movies as well-conditioned as TV shows. The fecundation was a huge transfiguration for Amazon, which previse would not fructify users to hire or buy engaging on the Prime Video app in the App Store. According to Bloomberg, Borough isn't demography its archetypal 30 percent cut from these engaging transactions.

That 30 percent App Successfulness fee is part of Spotify's complaint conjoin Borough in the European Union. "In contempo years, Borough has introduced rules to the App Successfulness that purposely limit palatial as well-conditioned as stifle intro at the expense of the user levelheadedness -- essentially substitutive as both a player as well-conditioned as referee to knowingly disadvantage other app developers," Spotify CEO Daniel Ek wrote in a 2019 blog post. At Wednesday's hearing, Cook again pointed out that the span lowers to 15 percent once customers enter their second year of a subscription, loosely that hasn't done much to somnolence Apple's critics.