According to TapTechNews on June 6, the Turkish Competition Authority announced that it will launch an investigation against Apple on the grounds that 'it does not allow the use of third-party payment systems in the App Store and applies anti-steering clauses to mobile application developers.'
TapTechNews Note: The anti-steering (anti-steering) clause, also known as the anti-referral clause, etc., generally occurs between upstream and downstream trading entities in the digital market. It refers to that the upstream entity prohibits the downstream merchant from guiding consumers to accept other services or products except itself. Taking iOS as an example, in the terms of Apple's App Store, it clearly prohibits developers from informing users in the App that there may be a cheaper alternative.
It is said that the authority has reviewed the contract between Apple and application developers and the 'Application Review Directive', and found that Apple is suspected of imposing restrictions on the payment system of application developers in the App Store.
The Turkish Competition Authority said that due to this ban, consumers do not know that there are other payment channels. Nor do they know that there is a price difference between in-app and out-of-app, thus limiting their choice.
On the other hand, the Turkish Competition Authority also needs to review 'whether Apple has forcibly deprived the freedom of application developers to bundle Apple's own payment system and whether it has prevented other payment systems from entering the Apple ecosystem'.
The Turkish Competition Authority has decided to launch an investigation against Apple to determine whether the App Store violates Article 6 of the Competition Protection Law No. 4054 (alternative payment systems are not allowed and antitrust laws apply) and applies anti-steering clauses to application developers.