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Apple’s App Store breaches EU’s Digital Markets Act (techcrunch.com)

submitted 5 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

12 comments fedilink hide all child comments

A few months after opening a non-compliance case on Apple and the Digital Markets Act (DMA), the European Commission has shared its preliminary findings with Apple. And the bottom line is that the current App Store rules are in breach of the DMA. Confirmed violations of the DMA can lead to fines of up to 10% of global annual turnover.

“‘Act different’ should be their new slogan,” the EU’s internal market commissioner, Thierry Breton, wrote on X. “For too long, Apple has been squeezing out innovative companies — denying consumers new opportunities & choices.”

In this particular case, the European Commission believes third-party developers should be able to inform customers of alternative purchasing possibilities — free of charge.

For instance, developers who have released apps on the App Store can’t advertise different prices or alternative distribution channels in their apps. While Apple now allows developers to include a link to their site, the European Commission believes there are too many restrictions with this link-out mechanism.

Even if developers redirect users to their websites and handle transactions on their websites, they have to report transactions to Apple and pay a commission. Apple only waives a 3% payment processing fee for web purchases.

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[–] namingthingsiseasy 37 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Excellent news:

At the heart of Monday’s findings are three elements of Apple’s practices, including fees charged to app developers for every purchase made within seven days of linking out to the commercial app.

source

This is, in my opinion, the most egregious non-compliant practice from Apple. They have no reason whatsoever to entitle themselves to purchases made outside their repository just because the software runs on their hardware. It's also the most asinine set of rules that they established to pretend that they were complying with the DMA.

It's a bit disappointing that it will take so long before the fines can be enforced, but I really hope that they get the maximum penalty over this because it's really the most shockingly brazen breach of the DMA's terms. In fact, I hope that they get imposed the maximum penalty multiple times - the same article I linked mentions that there are two other DMA investigations being launched into Apple, though I don't know what grounds those other investigations are looking into.

And I really hope Apple gets the message loud and clear: they're gonna start making less money. And this is a good thing. They don't deserve it, and they were never entitled to it in the first place. This is what happens when you invent new revenue streams that are criminally worthless.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

fact, I hope that they get imposed the maximum penalty multiple times

Max penalty would be breaking up Apple. It's even defined in the law. First comes 10% of revenue, then 20, then dissolution (didn't know the English term( Thanks billiam0202) )

[–] [email protected] 7 points 5 months ago (1 children)

"Dissolution" is the word you're looking for.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago

Thanks. I'll fix that