Apple Offered Special App Store API Access To Hulu and Other Developers

App Store Vice President Matt Fischer is on the stand answering questions from Apple and Epic lawyers, and one of the emails shared as evidence confirms that Apple has established special deals with major app developers like Hulu. From a report: In 2018, a tweet from developer David Barnard commented about App Store subscriptions being automatically cancelled through the StoreKit API, questioning why there hadn't been more offers to swap billing away from the App Store. Matt Fischer asked Cindy Lin about it, and she explained that Hulu is a developer with special access to a subscription cancel/refund API. Hulu is part of the set of whitelisted developers with access to subscription cancel/refund API. Back in 2015 they were using this to support instant upgrade using a 2 family setup, before we had subscription upgrade/downgrade capabilities built in. Apple does not further detail who other developers with special access might have been in the correspondence, but these are not features that all developers have access to. Apple has long said that the App Store provides a "level playing field" that treats all apps in the App Store the same with one set of rules for everybody and no special deals or special terms, but it's clear that some apps are indeed provided with special privileges.

All developers are equal

[dgatwood]

But some developers are more equal than others.

Re:

[Pierre Pants]

Exactly, and in the end, they're all equally in dirt. Some are just less dirty than others.

Desired apps

[Ronin Developer]

My guess is Apple exposed this API to developers who offered apps that would l, in their opinion, make the platform more desirable to users. At the same time, these were apps that Apple didnâ(TM)t want to or could create themselves.

These unique apps are more valuable to Apple than a million cat-pic sharing app or fart generator. They attract people to the Apple eco-system.

And, itâ(TM)s clear with the new fee structure, that Apple does view the little guy differently than larger development houses.

Re:

[DamnOregonian]

I'm sure you're right, it is however a very, very dangerous move on their part.
It's very close to an MFN, and Apple (Apple TV, Hulu, [other developers]) can argue to have engaged in collusion to maintain a competitive advantage over anyone else in that market segment.

These leaked emails are a fucking bomb dropping on beaver cleaverville.
The chances Apple walks away from this incoming tide without a consent decree is getting smaller by the day.

Witness impeachment

[Halo5]

IANAL but if I were, I'd be calling witnesses (Hulu, Netflix insiders) in order to impeach Fischer's testimony. Exactly how long have Hulu, et. al. had access to these special APIs?

Limited rollout for testing?

[dwater]

Think it might have been a limited rollout to test it before it was made widely available?

Re: Limited rollout for testing?

[backslashdot]

Thatâ(TM)s a hell of an excuse, that I do not think reasonable people would buy. They should have issued an open call for such a thing or announced it proper. Otherwise you can excuse any kind of favoritism with that.

Re: Limited rollout for testing?

[kopecn]

Beta agreements are extremely common. Nearly every company does it. Do you want to outlaw the practice?

Disingenuous to expect malfeasance by Apple

[mattr]

Almost everybody here is coming down on Apple hard but that seems pretty stupid to me. It would be easy for news to get out about some app using features unavailable in the public API. It's far more likely they were testing it with Hulu. And has anyone even checked to see whether it is still in use? Salesforce on the other hand does this and it is frustrating, at least in the past it seems they have had lots of hidden features. They also intentionally dumb down and add limits to the standard sales cloud to

Re:

[tlhIngan]

Almost everybody here is coming down on Apple hard but that seems pretty stupid to me. It would be easy for news to get out about some app using features unavailable in the public API. It's far more likely they were testing it with Hulu. And has anyone even checked to see whether it is still in use?

There were plenty of testing APIs - Apple did do tests with various developers for things they were thinking of implementing like Siri integration and others. Heck, for a modern example, I'm sure some developers

Itâ(TM)s normal

[gnasher719]

My company has not access to an API, but to modified behaviour. We filled in a form where we described why we need that modified behaviour, sent it to Apple, and got what we wanted.

I bet these APIs are available to _everyone_ who can demonstrate to Apple that they need them, and that is not everyone.

Re:

[mysidia]

Yes... It seems more like a security feature. The developer's use of the APIs is supposed to be in a manner approved by Apple. Based in the message in question [twitter.com] it seems like Apple was very displeased about Hulu abusing/"Misusing" the API they had been whitelisted on in order to apparently cancel and switch customer subscriptions to 'Hulu billing' (?).

Odd example to use to suggest Hulu was being afforded special privileges -- It sounds like Hulu potentially broke Apple's rules, and if Apple was work