I run a small subscription app with four employees. Apple takes 30 percent of every dollar my customers pay, then sells its own competing service with no such tax. That is not a marketplace, it is a toll booth with a conflict of interest. The Justice Department's 2024 lawsuit argues Apple illegally maintains its smartphone monopoly in part by degrading rival apps and accessories, and the EU's Digital Markets Act has already forced Apple to allow alternative app stores in Europe. Developers there are shipping updates Apple would never have permitted. If a 30 percent cut enforced by a single gatekeeper is not monopoly rent, the word has no meaning. Break up the gatekeepers and the toll booths fall with them.
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