Comment by WhyNotHugo
15 days ago
My impression is that the order of causality is the opposite. Google and similar companies are lobbying heavily for these industry codes so that app developers have no choice but to introduce the restrictions which only allow you to operate via them.
I think it is probably a bit of both.
There are some compelling reasons to regulate tech companies for the benefit of society and I often have no issue with the intention. The problem is governments invite the industry to design the regulations and it quickly turns into regulatory capture.
If vendors were to start locking out competition or further invade privacy it would upset government regulators but now they can point at another regulatory authority and claim they are forced to do these things to protect the kiddies.
> developers have no choice but to introduce the restrictions which only allow you to operate via them
ok, but what does that mean? Identification, and a fee for that service? Is this unreasonable?
What's the service when I've purchased a phone?
If they were to require subscribing and paying a fee to use their required online service to be able to use the hardware, that sounds like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tying_(commerce)
You're talking about a hypothetical situation where end users pay the app store directly, rather than indirectly via developer fees?
Also, Tying is usually applied for unrelated, unnecessary, or non-beneficial services. It's not obvious to me that it applies here.
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