Pressure is building on Apple to fully comply with the EU’s Digital Markets Act.
A Financial Times report suggests that an EU investigation is set to find Apple guilty of non-compliance with the legislation. Apple could then face daily fines of up to 5% of its average daily worldwide turnover – over $1bn – until it changes App Store policy to fully comply with the laws.
The FT’s report suggests the EU is set to find Apple guilty of breaking DMA laws, though there is still time for Apple to revise its policies to fully comply with the legislation. Apple would be the first tech giant to be charged with DMA non-compliance, with Alphabet and Meta also currently under investigation.
The EU’s competition chief Margrethe Vestager has also warned of the bloc’s “very serious” issues with Apple in an interview with CNBC. “We have a number of Apple issues; I find them very serious. I was very surprised that we would have such suspicions of Apple being non-compliant,” Vestager told CNBC.
“[Apple] are very important because a lot of good business happens through the App Store, happens through payment mechanisms, so of course, even though you know I can say this is not what was expected of such a company, of course we will enforce exactly with the same top priority as with any other business.”
The Digital Markets Act came into effect in March, and is designed to open up EU app stores to greater competition. In the same month, the EU launched an investigation into whether Apple, Alphabet and Meta are following the new laws.
In January, Apple revealed a new set of App Store policies intended to comply with the EU’s Digital Markets Act. They allow developers own the EU to run their own app stores and offer alternative payments systems, but also charge a Core Technology Fee to all those signing up to the new terms, a per-install commission similar to Unity’s controversial Runtime Fee.
The new policies were not received well. Outspoken Epic Games boss Tim Sweeney called the policies a “a devious new instance of Malicious Compliance” in a post on X, and a few days later multiple industry leaders in the mobile games business voiced their disapproval, with one exec stating that “Apple views developers as nothing more than thieves”.
