Meta, the champion of the commission… who criticized the Apple tax
Meta, it’s a bit like this fake friend who gives you lots of advice… but at the same time hastens to do the exact opposite! alongsideEpic Games as part of the lawsuit that targeted infamous tax AppleMeta/Facebook does not seem to be really opposed to a commission, like the one it already takes on games from the Oculus Store, and the one it will take tomorrow in its now famous metaverse.
“Ah, ah, ah, you know my latest joke? I’m going to say everywhere that the Apple tax is bad and right after I’m going to stick a 50% tax on the metaverse! »
A few days ago indeed, Meta announced that it would allow creators to sell digital items or services in the metaverse. What was not said during this announcement was that the social network would collect a commission on purchases made inside its Metaverse. Horizon Worlds. And not just any level of tax since the 17.5% commission for purchases made in Horizon Worlds will be added to the 30% “hardware” commission of the Meta Quest Storean overall commission level of 47.5% on each purchase in the metaverse!
Vivek Sharmathe vice president of Meta, told The Verge that almost 50% commission “remained a very competitive rate on the market”. If he says so, it must be true, right? No: the vast majority of commissions applied to digital stores generally do not exceed 30%. Moreover, during the trial Epic vs Apple, the representative of Meta had promised that their new commission in preparation would be lower than that of Apple. It missed. A few months later, Mark Zuckerberg even declared that the Apple commission was withdrawing “opportunities for creators to earn money from their work”.
The ugly Apple “tax” – from 15% to 30% on hyper-profitable titles – so courageously vilified by the very pure Epic Games and Facebook during a highly publicized trial, would therefore ultimately be just one commission among many. others, whom zealous lawyers have nevertheless managed to demonize as the only unfair tax on the tech sector? And almost everyone to fall into the trap? Not possible !
