Andy Yen, ProtonMail CEO: Apple runs its app store like 'mafia extortion' racket

Lucas Nolan
Breitbart
Wed, 14 Oct 2020 17:32 UTC

© ProtonMail

Tech giant Apple reportedly forced the privacy-focused email app ProtonMail to add in-app purchases to its iPhone app despite the service being free for years. Apple's treatment of the popular privacy-centric email service is another example of Tim Cook's company flexing its monopoly power. ProtonMail CEO Andy Yen likened Apple's app store policies to "mafia extortion."

The Verge reports that following a recent antitrust report from Congress which showed that major tech firms have taken part in anti-competitive practices, one developer revealed that it had been forced to monetize its largely free app.

ProtonMail, a privacy-focused email app, testified that Apple demanded in-app purchases be added to its iOS email client even though Apple had approved its app without any in-app purchases two years earlier. The developer claimed that when sending an email to customers notifying them of the change, Apple threatened to remove the app and block all updates.

Andy Yen, ProtonMail founder and CEO

In an interview with The Verge, ProtonMail CEO Andy Yen had some harsh words for Apple, stating that he and many other developers had been too scared of the massive power wielded by Apple to speak out until recently. Yen stated that although Apple changes its rules on September 11 to exempt "free apps acting as a stand-alone companion to a paid web based tool," ProtonMail still hasn't removed its in-app purchase due to fear of retaliation from Apple.

Yen claims that other developers feel the same way stating: "There's a lot of fear in the space right now; people are completely petrified to say anything." In an interview with The Verge, Yen likened Apple's business practices to the Mafia, stating:

For the first two years we were in the App Store, that was fine, no issues there. But a common practice we see ... as you start getting significant uptake in uploads and downloads, they start looking at your situation more carefully, and then as any good Mafia extortion goes, they come to shake you down for some money.

We didn't offer a paid version in the App Store, it was free to download ... it wasn't like Epic where you had an alternative payment option, you couldn't pay at all.

Yen claims that Apple's demand came suddenly in 2018: "Out of the blue, one day they said you have to add in-app purchases to stay in the App Store. They stumbled upon something in the app that mentioned there were paid plans, they went to the website and saw there was a subscription you could purchase, and then turned around and demanded we add IAP."

Yen added: "There's nothing you can say to that. They are judge, jury, and executioner on their platform, and you can take it or leave it. You can't get any sort of fair hearing to determine whether it's justifiable or not justifiable, anything they say goes. We simply complied in order to save our business."

Read more at the Verge here.

Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan or contact via secure email at the address [e-mail]

Comment: More from The Verge:

On Tuesday, Congress revealed whether it thinks Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google are sitting on monopolies. In some cases, the answer was yes.

But also, one app developer revealed to Congress that it — just like WordPress — had been forced to monetize a largely free app. That developer testified that Apple had demanded in-app purchases (IAP), even though Apple had approved its app without them two years earlier — and that when the dev dared send an email to customers notifying them of the change, Apple threatened to remove the app and blocked all updates.

That developer was ProtonMail, makers of an encrypted email app, and CEO Andy Yen had some fiery words for Apple in an interview with The Verge this week.

We've known for months that WordPress and Hey weren't alone in being strong-armed by the most valuable company in the world, ever since Stratechery's Ben Thompson reported that 21 different app developers quietly told him they'd been pushed to retroactively add IAP in the wake of those two controversies. But until now, we hadn't heard of many devs willing to publicly admit it. They were scared.

And they're still scared, says Yen. Even though Apple changed its rules on September 11th to exempt "free apps acting as a stand-alone companion to a paid web based tool" from the IAP requirement — Apple explicitly said email apps are exempt — ProtonMail still hasn't removed its own in-app purchases because it fears retaliation from Apple, he says.

He claims other developers feel the same way: "There's a lot of fear in the space right now; people are completely petrified to say anything."