A Russian lawmaker is attempting to pass legislation to reduce the commission that Google and Apple charge app and game developers on the sales of digital goods, from 30% to 20%.
Fedot Tumusov, the lawmaker behind the bill, submitted the draft to Russia's lower house of the parliament. The bill states that commissions of sales of apps should be capped to 20%, for both Apple and Google. The bill would also compel Apple and Google to pay one-third of their commissions to a special training fund for IT specialists every quarter.
Oddly, the bill does not refer to the 30% commission that Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo charge to game developers.
As per Reuters, Fedot Tumusov wrote the following on social media:
“Lowering the commission and having the ability to bring products to users is a growth opportunity for IT developers,”
It is unclear how much success the bill would see in the lower house of the Russian parliament.
Google and Apple have already been sued by Epic Games because the gaming company believes that these companies do not have a right to charge a 30% commission anymore. However, Epic Games is happy to pay the same amount of commission to Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo, for game sales and in-app purchases.
Apple, in particular, is already fighting multiple battles because of the App Store's position. Not only does it have more than a billion iOS users, but it also has users that spend more money on games and apps, which makes its audience a very lucrative market for all. On the other hand, Google has more users for Android, but the revenue generated from its audience is far less than what Apple's App Store has to offer.
This is not the first time that Apple is under scrutiny in Russia. Last month, the Russian Federal Anti-monopoly Service (FAS) had called out Apple for abusing its dominant position. FAS had started its investigation into Apple based on a complaint from Kaspersky when had its kids safety app rejected from the App Store. The company had to remove many features from its app for Apple to approve it.
