Apple doubles down on its 30% ‘tax’

Patreon revealed the new rules yesterday, warning the thousands of creators that use the service to receive payment from millions of patrons that they will kick-in this November. “Apple will be applying their 30% App Store fee to all new memberships purchased in the Patreon iOS app, in addition to anything bought in your Patreon shop,” it explained, stressing that this doesn’t apply to existing members.

It's not clear how Patreon has avoided these rules until now, given how rapacious Apple is when it comes to extracting its 30% ‘Apple tax’ from any app available through its app store. But this is an interesting doubling down by Apple at a time when its app store fees are under more critical scrutiny than ever. This is especially true in the EU, where Apple is in a high stakes battle of wills over the Digital Markets Act.

Unsurprisingly Apple’s biggest antagonist over this matter, game developer Epic, ran to Pateon’s defence. “Now Apple is demanding a 30% cut of all Patreon DONATIONS. Apple must be stopped. The digital world cannot go on like this,” tweeted Epic CEO Tim Sweeney. Last week Sweeny also tweeted indignantly about the latest claimed instance of ‘malicious compliance’ with the DMA by Apple.

An interesting perspective on this latest move is offered by the blog Daring Fireball, which is usually very accommodating to Apple. “This might epitomize the way Apple can be penny-wise but pound-foolish when it comes to the App Store,” it wrote. “However much money they think they might get from these Patreon subscriptions once the Patreon iOS app switches to IAP, I refuse to believe it’s worth the further degradation of Apple’s brand that this dispute with Patreon is incurring.”

Apple must also be aware of how much digital antitrust activity is going on in the US too. Any time it effectively says “pay us money or else”, it highlights how much power it holds over the smartphone market, where it is the dominant player in the US. This latest move feels like another example of Apple challenging regulators to do their worst and that wish could well be granted.