EU charges Apple with violating anti-competitiveness law

European Union regulators say Apple is violating the Digital Marketing Act, designed to regulate “gatekeepers,” or large digital platforms providing score platform services, such as online search engines, app stores and messenger services

In preliminary findings, the EU states that the iPhone maker’s App Store doesn’t let developers direct customers to alternative ways to make purchases. 

In a statement, Apple said it had made changes over the past few months to comply with the new law.

“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.

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The EU also announced it is investigating whether Apple’s technology fee for third-party developers violates the new law.

“Under the DMA, developers distributing their apps via Apple’s App Store should be able, free of charge, to inform their customers of alternative cheaper purchasing possibilities, steer them to those offers and allow them to make purchases,” the European Commission — the EU’s competition watchdog, said in a statement. 

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Apple has 12 months to bring itself into compliance or it faces fines of up to 10% of its global revenues. However, the EU has made it clear it hopes ongoing talks with the company will indeed lead to compliance rather than sanctions.

The company is also facing anti-competitiveness charges in the U.S. Earlier this year the Justice Department sued Apple, charging the company with making it difficult for competitors to integrate with the iPhone, resulting in higher prices for customers. Apple denied the charges and said it would vigorously defend against the lawsuit.

The regulators have also been investigating Meta.

Why we care. It’s quite clear that, in Europe at least, the tech giants can’t get away with running their businesses exactly how they please. The culture within the EU leans heavily towards protecting individual citizens rather than corporate profits. Whether that’s good or bad, impactful fines will surely get the tech companies’ attention.

This won’t be the last such finding.

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