[ipython]

I would believe this - after all how many billions of dollars did Google pay Apple to be the primary search engine on iOS? This further erodes my confidence in Apple doing the right thing and I think the EU is doing the world a service by setting in motion alternative app stores.

[gruez]

>I would believe this - after all how many billions of dollars did Google pay Apple to be the primary search engine on iOS?

The OP also mentions Facebook and Spotify also are violating rules, and to my knowledge they're not paying apple "billions", so this explanation doesn't pass the sniff test. The actual reason is probably far more banal: these apps command a huge user base, which would be very upset if apple banned these apps. As a result apple is letting such infractions slide because they don't want to upset users.

[burnerthrow008]

Could also be that they are afraid of more antitrust attention if they enforce the rules too strictly.

The EU already handed Google the browser market on a silver platter, under the guise of “competition”. How much farther would they go if Apple prevented a perceived competitor from abusing users?

[MBCook]

They’ve done this for years before the EU started stepping up.

I think a more likely explanation is they know what would happen to their sales numbers if they kicked off Facebook and Spotify.

[burnerthrow008]

> I think the EU is doing the world a service by setting in motion alternative app stores.

Why, so that developers can have absolutely no rules against abusing their users?

[DEADMINCE]

So people can actually have some control over the device they OWN.

[MBCook]

There’s a second set of rules for mega popular apps. Always has been. FB should have been permanently banned 15 years ago.

If you’re important enough Apple will let you get away with murder compared to normal devs. Users don’t buy phones without FB, Instagram, Spotify, WhatsApp, Google apps, etc.

There is only one time I remember anything happening to a big app. Fortnite probably could have tracked people for years. But the they took away Apple’s cut and publicly stuck a thumb in Apple’s eye at the same time. So they got booted.

[refulgentis]

15 years ago apple was proudly announcing they were integrating Facebook accounts into iPhone OS and making their APIs available to apps, to thumb their nose at Google. (iPhone OS 4, IIRC)

That's part of why Facebook felt rightfully indignant when Apple moved to kneecap attribution and acted like it had never heard of it