Apple's $100 Million 'Small Developer Assistance Fund' Surprises Developers With Payouts (appleinsider.com) 17
Developer Dan Leveille received "a sketchy voicemail from a random number about a class action lawsuit settlement..." he posted on Twitter. "I thought it was a scam and almost ignored it."
But he didn't — and ended up with $8,064.88 in his Venmo account.
Back in 2019 a lawsuit by U.S. developers accused Apple of "profit-killing" App Store commissions, reports TechForge Media. Apple settled that suit by agreeing to create a $100 million Small Developer Assistance Fund (for developers who sold in Apple's app store between June of 2015 and April of 2021). And this month Apple has finally started sending out those payments, Apple Insider reports: Developers had until May 20 to submit a request to an independent administrator to become a "Settlement Class Member." If they met the criteria, the developers stood to receive a payment from $250 to $30,000 in value....
Along with the fund, the settlement also introduced a number of changes to App Store policies, including modifications relating to customer and developer communication, new pricing tiers, and a promise by Apple to continue offering its 15% reduced App Store commission for at least three years.
But he didn't — and ended up with $8,064.88 in his Venmo account.
Back in 2019 a lawsuit by U.S. developers accused Apple of "profit-killing" App Store commissions, reports TechForge Media. Apple settled that suit by agreeing to create a $100 million Small Developer Assistance Fund (for developers who sold in Apple's app store between June of 2015 and April of 2021). And this month Apple has finally started sending out those payments, Apple Insider reports: Developers had until May 20 to submit a request to an independent administrator to become a "Settlement Class Member." If they met the criteria, the developers stood to receive a payment from $250 to $30,000 in value....
Along with the fund, the settlement also introduced a number of changes to App Store policies, including modifications relating to customer and developer communication, new pricing tiers, and a promise by Apple to continue offering its 15% reduced App Store commission for at least three years.
Re: Nice for developers (Score:2)
Apple is sitting on literally billions in cash, and agreed to pay out $100 million - you think this somehow 'hurt' Apple in any meaningful way?
The settlement amount of $100 million was determined before anyone knew the number of claims that were going to be filed.
In response to a lawsuit, Apple chose to do the right thing, good for them (and the developers that bothered to apply for compensation).
Re: (Score:2)
Yeah, "too bad" for Apple. Instead of getting a judge to order them to stop extorting developers, they can pay developers about one-tenth of 1% of their annual net profit [apple.com] one time and let a bunch of ignorant people on the Internet think "oh how nice they're giving back to small developers" that they screwed to begin with, while they continue screwing medium-size and large developers to the fullest extent possible.
How about just lowering your cut to something reasonable, Apple? Then you don't have to pay a
The amazing thing... (Score:4, Interesting)
The amazing thing here is a class action suit that actually yields substantial payouts to real people!
One mildly sad aspect though is that the payments seem to be higher than most devs were expecting, some have hypothesized that's because the suit had a low number of developers who could have qualified for a payout actually apply.
Even with the high payouts the lawyers still probably did quite well here...
Re: The amazing thing... (Score:3)
I suspect most developers that qualified never bothered to apply.
Because a court ordered... (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
...Apple to compensate people it'd ripped off? How is this "assistance" & not just compliance on pain of further prosecution?
How were Developers who willingly Agreed to the provisions of a Contract somehow "ripped off?" Especially when Apple was charging exactly the same Commission rate as every other similar software distribution service.
Re: (Score:3)
If you are really curious, it appears that the lawsuit alleged that Apple was engaged in a monopolization or attempted monopolization of iOS app distribution, in violation of US law.
Re: (Score:2)
If that's clear then Apple actually making these payouts is a good sign that suits against them on that basis have a good chance of succeeding in the future. Courts love sniffing their own farts (though I happen to agree with this action... I just don't trust courts)
Re: (Score:2)
If that's clear then Apple actually making these payouts is a good sign that suits against them on that basis have a good chance of succeeding in the future. Courts love sniffing their own farts (though I happen to agree with this action... I just don't trust courts)
. . .or, this can simply be "go away money"; where Apple is avoiding the negative Press of a protracted public legal battle. Especially since there are really no deep-pocket Plaintiffs (Complainants) for Apple to counter-sue.
Re: Because a court ordered... (Score:2)
Oh, so now the walled-in iOS ecosystem is wide-open? They still monopolize the iOS app market, what changed?
I don't think their actions were illegal, I think they may not have clearly described to the app writers exactly how they fully-control the iOS ecosystem.
Re: (Score:2)
What changed is that Apple paid a one-time fee of 0.1% of their 2022 net profit to make a potential absolute calamity of a lawsuit go away.
By making the lawsuit go away, they completely remove the downside of having real market regulation become a possibility and they can continue to extort their "taste" out of software developers' work. And Google grins a bit because they get to continue doing the same.
It was just Apple's turn to take one for the app publishing team, as it were.
Re: (Score:2)
Oh, it's ok to extort developers as long as your only real competition is also extorting developers in the same way?
If you are pointing at Google as justification for basically anything, you are justifying bad behavior. May as well be using Meta or Oracle in your justifications of bad behavior.
Re: (Score:2)
Oh, it's ok to extort developers as long as your only real competition is also extorting developers in the same way?
If you are pointing at Google as justification for basically anything, you are justifying bad behavior. May as well be using Meta or Oracle in your justifications of bad behavior.
Actually, I never point to Google as a "good example".
Re: Because a court ordered... (Score:3)
So paying the app developers was something apple did to avoid having to pay app developers?
That apple cut its losses and cut checks to app developers over a lawsuit that could spend years in court is somehow an evil ploy by apple to escape responsibility for previous actions? Sorry, I just don't see it. We're not talking about a company that knowingly sold cars with compromised safety devices and put people's lives at risk, it's a debate about contract language and commission fees - they paid money to settl
Re: (Score:2)
Then you aren't looking at the bigger issue.
Apple paid to make the lawsuit go away, because the lawsuit was nothing but downside for Apple. It's one thing if a big publisher like Epic gets in a slap fight over revenue percentages, because then you can fight a PR campaign of "oh a greedy pay-to-win game publisher just wants to keep more money for themselves and wants free access to Apple's customers to siphon more money out through in-app purchases."
That narrative doesn't play with small developers where Ap