The tug of war between Apple and the European Union therefore intensifies. The European Commission, after the indiscretions of the last few days by the Financial Times, has officially communicated to Apple the preliminary opinion according to which the rules of‘App Stores violate the Digital Markets Act (DMA)as they prevent app developers from
freely direct consumers to alternative channels for offers
and contents. A theme, that of the DMA, which is also connected to the postponement of the launch of Apple’s Artificial Intelligence on our continent.
LThe Commission has also started a new non-compliance procedure against Apple out of concern that its new contractual requirements for third-party app developers and app stores, including Apple’s new Core Technology Fee, fail to ensure effective compliance with the DMA.
It is the first case officially opened by the EU and linked to the DMA, even if – as explained in a press release – there are 4 other cases of companies that do not comply with the requirements, already under the scrutiny of Brussels since last March.
This raises the tension between Apple, which claims that its products are designed in the best interests of customers, and EU regulators, which say the company is using its size and resources unfairly. to damage or stifle competition.
Vestager: «Apple does not fully allow “steering”»
Vice President of the European Commission with responsibility for Antitrust, Margrethe Vestager, says: «Today is a very important day for the effective application of the DMA: we have sent the preliminary results to Apple. Our preliminary position is that Apple doesn’t allow steering completely» (the term “steering” means the possibility of directing users towards alternative channels). Vestager then adds: «The directive is crucial to ensuring that app developers are less dependent on gatekeeper app stores and that consumers are aware of better offers. We have also opened cases against Apple in relation to its so-called core technology commission and various rules to allow third-party app stores and sideloading. The developer community and consumers are eager to offer alternatives to the App Store. We will investigate to ensure Apple does not undermine these efforts.”he added.
This is the third investigation opened into Apple
According to the DMA, developers who distribute their apps via the Apple App Store should be able, free of charge, to inform their customers about cheaper alternative purchasing options, direct them to these offers and allow them to
make purchases.
The new investigation opened today – the third – concerns non-compliance with Apple’s new contractual terms for developers as a condition for accessing some of the new features enabled by the DMA, in particular the provision of alternative app stores or the ability to offer an app through an alternative distribution channel . Apple has so far maintained the option to subscribe to the previous conditions, which do not allow alternative distribution channels.
In another tweet, the Frenchman Thierry Breton, EU commissioner for industry, services and digital, says: “Act Different” should be their new slogan (of Apple, whose historical slogan is “Think Different”). For too long, Apple has shut out innovative companies, denying consumers new opportunities and choices. Today we are taking additional steps to ensure that AppStore and iOS are DMA compliant.”
Core Technology Fee
One of the points that the EU deems unacceptable concerns the so-called Core Technology Fee, on which Apple has already softened the clauses precisely to extend an olive branch to Brussels.
Since last March, developers have been able to offer their apps to users in the European Union not only through Apple’s own App Store, but also from third-party stores or directly from their own website. A new activity for the DMA. However, Apple has created a new type of commission: a “tax” called Core Technology Fee, required from those who, in the previous year, offered an app downloaded over a million times. For each installation, once the million downloads exceeded, the developer will have to pay 50 cents to Apple. According to the company, 99 percent of developers were already so exempt. And of the remaining 1%, institutions (political, educational, non-profit) will not have to pay the Core Technology Fee, but also two other categories.
They are exempt developers who have no income from their app, i.e. students or those who program as a hobby and who do not foresee any monetization through advertising, subscriptions or in any other form (even if they have exceeded one million downloads). Who is also exempt is blessed by a sudden and unexpected boom in his app: those who earn less than 10 million euros annually will not be able to pay the Core Technology Fee for the first three years from the milestone of one million downloads; if you then earn as much as 50 million euros in this period of time, you will start paying the “tax” sooner.
Complex rules which in any case do not seem to have satisfied the European Union, which seems to be asking for greater simplicity and a more substantial revision of the Core Technology Fee.
