苹果面临起诉：App Store 涉嫌垄断吗？-白红宇

苹果面临起诉：App Store 涉嫌垄断吗？

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发布时间：2019-06-12

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现代社会，手机在手，啥也不愁。购物不用带钱包，网上支付可以搞定一切；旅游懒得背相机，修图 App 帮你打造最美的自己。看直播、学英语、玩游戏、听音乐，我们的生活已经充斥着各类 App。据悉，苹果 App Store 已累计发布超过 450 万款 App，固定抽成 30%，为其创造百亿美元的收入。这样的做法算垄断吗？美国最高法院又是如何介入的？

新闻正文

天才不在于把事物复杂化，而在于把复杂的事物变得简洁。Genius is not about making complicated things, it's about making complicated things very simple.

The Supreme Court will wade into a fight over Apple’s tightly controlled App Store

苹果商城：严加管控引纷争，最高法院欲介入

The Supreme Court on Monday announced that it would consider a case that asks whether consumers can sue Apple over the way it manages millions of apps for iPhones and iPads, threatening to expose not only Apple but also its tech industry peers to new antitrust scrutiny.

美国最高法院周一时宣布，法院将受理一起案件，该案件涉及的问题是，消费者是否可以因为苹果管理 iPhone 和 iPad 上数百万应用的方式对其提起诉讼。不只是苹果，该案件可能会将苹果的其他科技界同行都卷入新的反垄断审查中。

注：espose sth/sb to sth 让.....遭受...

The lawsuit could force Apple to rethink the way it manages its App Store, long considered one of the most highly curated platforms in the business. For one thing, Apple generally takes a 30 percent cut of all third-party apps sold through its portal. In the eyes of the plaintiffs, that fee ultimately hurts consumers, because developers pass those added costs on to iPhone and iPad users who purchase the paid apps.

这一诉讼可能会迫使苹果重新思考公司应用商城的管理方式，长久以来，苹果的商城一直被认为是业内筛选最严的平台之一。首先，苹果通常会向通过其商城销售的第三方应用收取 30%的分成。在原告看来，这笔费用最终侵害的是消费者，因为开发者会把这笔费用转嫁给购买付费应用的 iPhone 和 iPad 用户。

注：cut：利润。pass sth on to sb：把某件事转嫁给某人。

Apple has argued that its policies target developers, not consumers. It has likened itself to a shopping mall that “leases space to various stores,” which then sell to shoppers. In a digital context, Apple says consumers aren’t buying apps from the company — they’re buying them from the creators of those apps through the App Store interface. The arguments rest on a Supreme Court decision from the 1970s that found consumers can’t seek damages in cases where a company allegedly charged a third party and that third party then passed the costs onto its customers.

苹果辩称，其政策针对的是开发者而不是消费者。它把自己比作一家“出租空间给不同商户的”商业区，再由商户出售商品给顾客。在数字技术的语境下，苹果声称消费者并不是从苹果公司处购买商品，而是经由苹果商城界面从应用开发者那里进行购买。这一说法倚仗的是最高法院在上世纪 70 年代的一项裁决，该裁决认定，如果一家公司被控向第三方收取费用，而第三方又将费用转嫁给消费者，则消费者不得要求赔偿。

注：allegedly：被指控做了某事

A loss for Apple could mean trouble for other companies, like Google and Microsoft, which have their own repositories for third-party apps on smartphones and other devices. It could mean a “potential flood of lawsuits,” said Morgan Reed, the leader of ACT: The App Association, a Washington-based trade group for app-makers that is sponsored by Apple. It has asked the Supreme Court to halt the lawsuit.

苹果输掉官司的话，可能会给谷歌和微软等其他公司带来麻烦，这些公司在智能手机和其他设备上都有自己的第三方应用库。ACT 领导人摩根里德说，这可能意味着有“一大批潜在的官司”需要处理。ACT 是一家位于华盛顿的应用协会，也是苹果赞助的开发者贸易组织。它已经请求最高法院中止诉讼。

注：a flood of 大量的许多的。

————— 文章来源 / 华盛顿邮报

重点词汇

wade:跋涉;（从水、泥等）蹚，走过 wade into:积极参与，强行介入某事。

sue /suː/ v. 控告；提起诉讼

lawsuit /ˈlɔːsuːt/ n. 诉讼；起诉

curate /kjʊˈreɪt/ or /ˈkjʊrət/ v. 操持；筛选并呈现（互联网行业术语）

portal /ˈpɔːrtl/ n. 门；门户网站

plaintiff /ˈpleɪntɪf/ n. 原告；起诉人

liken /ˈlaɪkən/ v. 把…比作；把…比拟为

lease /liːs/ v. 租用，租借，出租