Bjarne Tellmann is senior vice president and general counsel at GSK Consumer Healthcare, a joint venture that combines the consumer brands of GSK and Pfizer. He speaks to Global Finance about the intersectionality of his work.
Household saving is defined as the difference between a household’s disposable income and its expenditures on goods and services. During the pandemic it rose to historical highs everywhere.
On October 27, Global Finance conducted a Sub-custody Roundtable, moderated by publisher and editorial director Joseph Giarraputo. The Roundtable agenda covered crucial topics in the sub-custody sector including: the global and regional impact on the COVID-19 pandemic on sub-custodians; the effect ...
Apple, the world’s most valuable company, and Epic Games, a video game developer, are locking horns in a legal fight over how to sell content through iOS. At issue is Apple’s right to impose a 30% fee on game sale proceeds. The high-stakes battle is being watched closely as a showdown over the vast commercial power of the iPhone producer.
Marketplaces such as Apple’s App Store and Google ‘s Play Store usually charge developers and content sellers 30% of revenue over the first 12 months and 15% thereafter—a cut that many consider excessive. To get around this “tax,” Epic introduced its own payment mechanism for one of its most popular games, Fortnite. Apple responded by removing Fortnite from the App Store.
This is where the legal battle started. Epic wants its game reinstated on App Store and accuses Apple of assuming the monopolistic role that IBM held 20 years ago. Apple is demanding that any sellers using the App Store, which analysts estimate generates about $15 billion in annual sales, observe its payment rules.
While a court hearing was set for the end of September, Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, the federal judge hearing the case in California, said last month that neither company has a “slam-dunk case.” Meanwhile, she granted a temporary restraining order barring Apple from revoking Epic’s developer accounts while allowing Apple to continue banning Fortnite.
The Justice Department has reportedly opened an antitrust investigation into Apple over its App Store practices, after the European Commission opened a similar probe earlier this year.