
Ask HN: Why isn't Apple, Google, and Facebook's 30% tax illegal price fixing? - jliptzin
I&#x27;ve wondered for a few years why we don&#x27;t see the standard 30% developer tax change like you might expect in a competitive market, and I&#x27;m hearing this question echoed by more and more developers. I am not accusing any of these companies of colluding to fix the fee, but I am interested to hear from someone with more insight whether this can be considered a form of price fixing.<p>Obviously, they know there&#x27;s really nowhere else for third party developers to go (good luck building a competing platform), so as long as they keep their prices equal they could push that tax as high as they want. Weren&#x27;t antitrust laws designed to address oligopoly situations such as this?<p>In a similar story, Visa and Mastercard recently settled for $7.25 billion in a class-action lawsuit related to illegally fixing their processing fees:<p>http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.reuters.com&#x2F;article&#x2F;2012&#x2F;07&#x2F;13&#x2F;us-creditcards-settlement-interchange-idUSBRE86C16H20120713
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wmf
Apple isn't part of a competitive market (or at least they don't think they
are), so there's your answer.

