Apple to Australians: You’re Too Stupid to Choose Your Own Apps

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Apple has released a scaremongering, self-serving warning aimed at the Australian government, claiming that Australians will be overrun by a parade of digital horribles if Australia follows the European Union’s lead and regulates Apple’s “walled garden.” 

The EU’s Digital Markets Act is a big, complex, ambitious law that takes aim squarely at the source of Big Tech’s power: lock-in. For users, the DMA offers interoperability rules that let Europeans escape US tech giants’ walled gardens without giving up their relationships and digital memories.  

For small businesses, the DMA offers something just as valuable: the right to process their own payments. That may sound boring, but here’s the thing: Apple takes 30 percent commission on most payments made through iPhone and iPad apps, and they ban app makers from including alternative payment methods or even mentioning that Apple customers can make their payments on the web. 

All this means that every euro a European Patreon user sends to a performer or artist takes a round-trip through Cupertino, California, and comes back 30 cents lighter. Same goes for other money sent to major newspapers, big games, or large service providers. Meanwhile, the actual cost of processing a payment in the EU is less than one percent, meaning that Apple is taking in a 3,000 percent margin on its EU payments. 

To make things worse, Apple uses “digital rights management” to lock iPhones and iPads

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