Apple Inc.’s antitrust feud with the European Union over allegedly illegal practices on the App Store intensified as watchdogs issued a fresh warning that could lead to more fines — just months after they slapped the iPhone maker with a €1.8 billion ($1.9 billion) penalty for thwarting music-streaming rivals.
The European Commission said Monday that Apple must allow app developers to steer users to cheaper deals and offers outside of the App Store, in order to comply with the bloc’s Digital Markets Act, which lays out a raft of dos and dont’s for some of the world’s largest technology platforms.
The Brussels-based regulator also said that it had opened a fresh investigation into Apple’s new App Store fees for developers in the EU, to examine whether they are in line with the DMA. Failure to comply the law could come with fines for the company — as much as 10% of global annual revenue.
Monday’s announcement — which is a preliminary step — follows a similar move the EU made against Apple in March under its standard competition rules, which came with the first wave of fines.
“Act different” should be their new slogan🍏
— Thierry Breton (@ThierryBreton) June 24, 2024
For too long @Apple has been squeezing out innovative companies — denying consumers new opportunities & choices.
Today we are taking further steps to ensure AppStore & iOS comply with #DMA pic.twitter.com/e741oV9r9l
The Brussels-based regulator is due to come to a final decision in the DMA case by the end of March 2025. That move could unleash another legal battle between Apple and the EU through the bloc’s courts.
“We are confident our plan complies with the law, and estimate more than 99% of developers would pay the same or less in fees to Apple under the new business terms we created,” Apple said in a statement in response to the EU announcement.
The EU’s focus on how Apple allegedly abuses its dominance on the app store was originally sparked by a 2019 complaint from Spotify Technology SA. The Swedish service claimed it was forced to ramp up the price of its monthly subscriptions to cover costs associated with Apple’s alleged stranglehold on how the app store operates.
Under the DMA, it’s illegal for certain services operated by the likes of Apple, Alphabet Inc.’s Google, Meta Platforms Inc., Microsoft Corp., and Amazon.com Inc. to favor their own services over those of rivals. They are barred from combining personal data across their different services, prohibited from using data they collect from third-party merchants to compete against them, and have to allow users to download apps from rivals platforms.
As well as challenging the designation of a number of its services under the rules, Apple blamed the DMA for a separate announcement on Friday to halt the rollout of its artificial intelligence technologies in the 27-nation EU.
The company said that it would block the release of Apple Intelligence, iPhone Mirroring and SharePlay Screen Sharing from users in the EU this year, because the DMA allegedly forces it to downgrade the security of its products and services.
