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.
I would say the opposite is true. Apple knows exactly what the EU wants and is doing everything within their power to maliciously comply. Giving them 12 months is nothing but a free pass to exploit consumers for another year. Then they’ll continue doing it because the EU has proven that they won’t actually do anything about it.