The other day French finance minister Bruno Le Maire announced that the French government would be looking to launch a lawsuit against companies like Apple and Google, alleging that these companies have “abusive” developer contracts where they get to unilaterally change contract terms like pricing.However Apple has since come forward to deny these allegations, claiming that not only do they have strong relationships with French developers, but these developers have also benefited greatly from the App Store where they have made as much as 1 billion euros in revenue generated by their apps.
According to Apple’s statement by Le Figaro (via MacGeneration; via MacRumors), it roughly translates to, “We are proud to have strong relationships with tens of thousands of developers across France, who have earned 1 billion euros on the App Store. Many of these talented developers founded their companies with one or two people and then saw their teams grow to offer their applications to users in 155 countries. This was only possible thanks to Apple’s investment in iOS, development tools, and the App Store.”
They also add, “Apple has always defended the confidentiality and security of users and does not have access to user transactions with third-party applications. We are fully prepared to share our history in the French courts and to clarify this misunderstanding. In the meantime, we will continue to help French developers realize their dreams and support French students in their learning of the code through our coding program.”