A deep dive into the deal between Apple and Amazon that lets the retail giant process some payments in Prime Video app, and the motivations of both companies
is the price discount demanded by a comic store retailer for carrying a comic a “Comic Book Store Tax”? Is there a “7-Eleven Tax”? https://www.theverge.com/... Dieter Bohn / @backlon : Today's newsletter: a little late because it's a little longer than usual: Why Amazon got out of the Apple App Store tax, and why other developers won't https://www.theverge.com/... https://twitter.com/... Brandon Smith / @muckrakery : .@dhh says “Apple, how about extending this privilege to the rest of us? Not just some special class of huge corporations.” I say all this has to violate existing antitrust law somehow https://twitter.com/... Ben Bajarin / @benbajarin : So interesting. https://twitter.com/... Modest Proposal / @modestproposal1 : More details of the Apple-Amazon arrangement. I can understand why both Apple and Amazon think this deal makes sense in a vacuum. I cannot understand how Apple thinks this makes sense given the intense regulatory scrutiny of app store rules. https://daringfireball.net/... See also Mediagazer
Context & Ripple Effects
The Prime Video carve-out is the payoff to a détente that started in 2017, when Apple agreed to put Prime Video on Apple TV and Amazon resumed selling Apple TVs. The new step, reported a day earlier, is that Apple now lets some video streaming apps use their own payment methods, sparing Amazon the 30% cut that applies to everyone else.
The motivations run both ways: Stratechery reads the deal as Apple hedging against a Netflix-dominated streaming future once weaker services fold, while The Verge and dhh's reaction frame it as a special privilege for huge corporations that smaller developers are denied — with antitrust violations already being alleged.
First-order effects
- Amazon keeps the 30% commission on Prime Video subscriptions bought inside its iOS app instead of paying it to Apple, and gains control of the billing relationship with those customers.
- Every other video developer remains on the standard 30% App Store terms, creating a visible two-tier system where scale, not the published rules, determines the take rate.
Second-order effects
- Smaller developers and antitrust critics get their strongest talking point yet — if Amazon can bypass Apple's payment system, the rule looks discretionary rather than necessary, feeding the pressure The Verge says exposes the rules as arbitrary and outdated.
- Rival streaming services now have a template to negotiate toward, and Apple gains a bargaining chip it can trade for placement — the later move putting Apple TV+ into Prime Video Channels shows how the two companies keep swapping distribution favors.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, the 30% App Store commission stops being a uniform platform tax and becomes a negotiated rate for the largest partners — a structure that invites exactly the antitrust scrutiny developers like dhh are already calling for, and gives regulators a concrete example of gatekeeper discretion.
The trend: App Store economics are shifting from a uniform 30% take rate toward case-by-case deals with the biggest partners, eroding the gatekeeper model from the top down.