#Facebook says Apple kept users in the dark about App Store fees

Facebook this week doubled down on its criticism of Apple’s steep 30 percent App Store fees, revealing that the iPhone maker rejected its attempt to be transparent about the fees in its app.

The social networking giant said that Apple did not let it tell users of a new online events feature that Apple takes a 30 percent cut of sales because of an App Store rule which bars developers from showing users “irrelevant” information.

“Now more than ever, we should have the option to help people understand where money they intend for small businesses actually goes,” Facebook said in a statement to Reuters. “Unfortunately Apple rejected our transparency notice around their 30 percent tax but we are still working to make that information available inside the app experience.”

It’s the second time in as many weeks that Facebook has gone public with complaints about the App Store’s policies.

Mark Zuckerberg’s tech giant previously released a statement saying that Apple refused to waive its hefty fees for the program, which Facebook says it introduced to help small businesses make money during the pandemic through online events.

In its initial statement, Facebook portrayed itself as trying to do good by its users.

“We asked Apple to reduce its 30 percent App Store tax or allow us to offer Facebook Pay so we could absorb all costs for businesses struggling during COVID-19,” the head of Facebook’s app Fidji Simo said in the statement. “Unfortunately, they dismissed both our requests and [small businesses] will only be paid 70 percent of their hard-earned revenue.”

Mock-ups released at the time show the notice that Facebook intended to show users, but current versions of the program did not feature information about Apple’s fees, Reuters found.

The public rebuke from Facebook comes as Apple is embroiled in a high-profile legal fight with Epic Games, the maker of mega-popular video game “Fortnite”.

Apple booted “Fortnite” from the App Store after Epic introduced a new payment system which allowed it to circumvent the iPhone maker’s fees .

Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment.