
New EU regulation strengthens hand of developers in dealings with storefronts - nikki93
https://www.mcvuk.com/business-news/new-eu-regulation-strengthens-hand-of-developers-and-publishers-in-dealings-with-storefronts/
======
ogre_codes
EDIT: I was concerned this might prevent malware from getting weeded out, but
there are rational carve-outs if you dig a little deeper in:

> The various exceptions to the 30-day notice period can in particular arise
> in connection with illicit or inappropriate content, the safety of a good or
> service, counterfeiting, fraud, malware, spam, data breaches, other
> cybersecurity risks or suitability of the good or service to minors.

Original Post

\-------------

I'm a bit concerned that "Article 4" will protect malware and fraudulent
software from being removed:

> Platforms will have to provide 30 days notice to publishers before removing
> content from stores, allowing them time to appeal or make changes to their
> software. So no immediate and opaque bans (article 4).

Minimizing malware is one of the selling points of App Stores, and this seems
to kneecap that to some extent.

~~~
mrweasel
I don't really like the: "inappropriate content" that's the kind of language
which allows American companies to apply an American sense of moral onto
countries with completely different ideas of what is inappropriate.

~~~
Nasrudith
That is something fundamental essentially for better or worse - it is their
right. Even if their objections are stupid or morally wrong they have real
impacts they have to be conscious of.

Not having it would effectively render markets mutually exclusive as the terms
are "do something which would cause a shitstorm here" like saying they can't
take down a Zwarte Pete face swap app. The law prohibiting it would turn it
into an international incident as a "EU demands a right to profit from
blackface" scandal and nobody wins.

~~~
anoncake
The people who want to use apps that violate American morals win, that's
enough. Sure, there may be a shitstorm or two, but that will pass once people
get used to the law.

~~~
viro
Do you live in the States? ... That is NOT how that would go down.

~~~
anoncake
Seriously? Would there be a shitstorm for years?

~~~
paulryanrogers
I think that would depend on who was offended and to what degree. Consider
that Christianity is still quite a thing here, and while there aren't many
killings for criticism of Jesus, people will boycott.

~~~
anoncake
Maybe they will. But ultimately, the opinions of Americans shouldn't determine
European policies.

~~~
viro
I think you forget how serious Americans are about free speech. Trying to
force an American company to allow Lolli or cub content(just an example) on
their platform won't end well. " the opinions of Americans shouldn't determine
European policies." The issue here is that's not how international politics
works. Unless you don't see an issue with forcing someone of another culture
to do something they find to be morally evil.

~~~
anoncake
They aren't forced to allow anything on their platforms unless they want to
provide it in Europe. And what their platforms look like in other countries is
those countries' business of course.

> I think you forget how serious Americans are about free speech.

I'm also serious about free speech which is why I don't want unelected
capitalists to restrict it.

------
_the_inflator
This is good news. App stores are more like an employer these days. Sure,
„Don’t depend on an App Store alone”, but if you apply the same logic to
worker rules, you have hire and fire.

The app stores are maturing and so comes regulation into play.

~~~
amelius
This should be broader though, and apply to any kind of platform, from food
delivery to ride sharing.

~~~
mqus
Afaict, this _does_ apply to all online platforms.

From the definitions:

(2) ‘online intermediation services’ means services which meet all of the
following requirements:

(a) they constitute information society services within the meaning of point
(b) of Article 1(1) of Directive (EU) 2015/1535 of the European Parliament and
of the Council (12);

(b) they allow business users to offer goods or services to consumers, with a
view to facilitating the initiating of direct transactions between those
business users and consumers, irrespective of where those transactions are
ultimately concluded;

(c) they are provided to business users on the basis of contractual
relationships between the provider of those services and business users which
offer goods or services to consumers;

IANAL, of course.

------
CppCoder
„Platforms will have to provide 30 days notice to publishers before removing
content from stores“

This happend to me a few times with one particular app on Google Play Store
and a company I worked for.

In all cases the app was removed from the store without any prior notice and
very limited information on why it was removed in the first place. To make it
worse, it took days to get a reply back which felt to be build out of
predefined text blocks and did not address the questions nor solution.

Apple on the other hand always provided great feedback and offered solutions
and never simply took an app from the store.

Hence I welcome this change greatly. Also noteworthy, the apps in question
were absolutely clean and were to please the users. No spam, spy,
advertisements boosters.

Lets just hope this 30 day rule does not apply to the numerous bad apps, those
should be removed more quickly and in fact not even approved in the first
place.

------
richrichardsson
I wonder if this will apply simply to Apple Developer accounts? Currently if a
developer wishes to ship products outside the App Store they are still stuck
with the hard requirement to have an active developer account in order to
notarise their software. If for whatever reason Apple decides to shutter a
developer account (something I've witnessed recently [1]) then they are SOOL
if they want to release for recent macOS versions.

[1] [https://forum.juce.com/t/apple-developer-support-is-
unreacha...](https://forum.juce.com/t/apple-developer-support-is-
unreachable/40611)

------
Magodo
Just a thought, but why doesn't the EU (and only the EU has the will for this)
have a government funded storefront for all apps. Then make Google and Apple
add this storefront as an app on par with Play Store and App Store on all
their devices. Sounds much more efficient than creating regulation after
regulation

~~~
0xfaded
In my oppinion EU governments already have their thumbs in more pies than they
should.

I think a more interesting point is how EU companies can hope to compete with
the likes of Google if non-EU companies can effectively subsidise their EU
operations by using revenue from more profitable markets. The EU is most
certainly profitable to operate in, it is the wealthiest block on earth. It's
just that margins are slimmer and cost of business is higher.

Heavy regulation of local comanies forces either heavy subsidies (basically
all r&d in Europe is 50%+ subsidised) or a Chinese style blanket ban on
competition.

~~~
disabled
We actually get fairly good value for our tax dollar, as EU citizens.

I am both American and an EU citizen. While I love the United States dearly, I
have a safer, more stable life working in the EU.

~~~
0xfaded
I've also lived in the US and now Europe. Don't get me wrong, each had it's
pros and cons; as an individual both my purchasing power and quality of life
was better in the US.

Outside of universal education and healthcare, my conclusion is that the value
of the European tax dollar is unfairly distributed. At the local level,
European grants and subsidies create jobs for educated people who chose the
right course of study. At the Eurozone level, you have the northern "export
based" economies essentially using a devalued currency to outcompete the
southern countries. Relatively that means more tax dollars for the northern
countries, when ideally those would be spread somewhat evenly across Europe.

I think Europe needs a technocratic tool that makes the economic performance
of all countries everyone's problem. Denmark has an unemployment and
retraining scheme called a-kasse that is reasonably well implemented. I could
see a centrally funded, Europe wide implementation could be a solution.

~~~
disabled
Thank you for this comment. I really do believe this is spot on.

------
TedDoesntTalk
> Unfair B2B market practices can be tackled, but only if game developers and
> publishers talk about them. EGDF calls all game developers and publishers to
> report any unfair treatment they receive

Report then where?

~~~
coldtea
To the EGDF for starters...

And if this law passes, to EU authorities...

------
raxxorrax
If developers didn't use them in the first place, this problem could have been
non-existent. I am glad that desktop has fended off tries to establish
software stores, although I don't think we have seen the last of it.

Still, I think this is good regulation. We have seen random bans from apps
that didn't hit the correct taste and a mechanism to appeal is surely needed.

I get that mobile developers don't have much choice if the want to monetize
their software, but at least we should keep these ecosystems to unproductive
devices.

~~~
rimliu
I wastly prefer App Store on desktop too. Most of my software is in the same
place. I can see which apps I have installed on a particular machine and which
I do not. I can install it on multiple machines. It is updated automatically.

------
MrDresden
After loosely reading over the regulation, I can't see anything limiting it to
games in particular. I realize that the GI.biz article would focus on the
impact that it would have on games developers & publishers, but as a mobile
application developer my self I am more interested in the impact this will
have on the EU ecosystem overall on both stores.

------
lokedhs
It'll be interesting to see how long it will be until the policies are made
available as per these regulations. These companies are not going to do this
without a fight, so someone will have to take them to court first.

Sadly, I think we're several years away from actually getting this
information.

------
akmarinov
"Member states are not obligated to provide for ex officio enforcement or to
impose fines"

Move along, nothing to see here...

~~~
IAmEveryone
It still allows the developers to sue, as well trade associations etc.

~~~
TomMarius
Sue to whom? There is no EU court you could directly sue to.

~~~
simo_dax
Literally from europa.eu:

> Regulations are legal acts that apply automatically and uniformly to all EU
> countries as soon as they enter into force, without needing to be transposed
> into national law. They are binding in their entirety on all EU countries.

And:

> Public authorities in EU Member States have the main responsibility for the
> application of EU law.

~~~
TomMarius
I knew the citation, but thank you anyways. When you actually try with the
local court you'll find out it's not as clear cut as it is on the EU website
and the local court will adhere only to local codified law. My country's
government is in opposition to some of regulations and the courts can't do
anything about it.

~~~
T-A
[https://europa.eu/european-union/about-eu/institutions-
bodie...](https://europa.eu/european-union/about-eu/institutions-bodies/court-
justice_en)

~~~
TomMarius
Yeah, there is some procedure with this court and the government going on
regarding a single issue, other issues are waiting in queue. It has been 5
years and still nothing. Note that a person/corporation can't sue to this
court.

~~~
T-A
From the linked page:

"any person or company who has had their interests harmed as a result of the
action or inaction of the EU or its staff can take action against them through
the Court"

~~~
TomMarius
Interesting, I missed that. I will look into it more closely, thanks.

