The EU regulator has ruled out an Apple app fee structure that violates Digital Markets Act and the EU Competition Laws in the U.S.
Apple is among three tech giants being investigated for failing to comply with the European Union’s new competition rules, in another blow to the embattled smartphone maker.
The EU regulator is looking into apple’s app distribution fee structure, and Amazon’s own products on its store, as well as Apple’s announcement of a fee structure for distributing apps outside of the App Store. The Commission said that Meta has six months to make Messenger compatible with other messaging services.
Earlier this month, the six major tech companies designated as gatekeepers under the DMA had to start complying with its rules. The options include giving customers the option to change default apps, uninstall the pre-installed applications, and allow third-party app stores.
There is fierce criticism of how Apple is complying with the Digital Markets Act. Although the company is allowing alternative app stores on iOS as required by the new rules, it’s doing so with a new fee structure that its critics claim will dissuade developers from distributing apps outside of Apple’s App Store. Apple’s compliance was called a “total farce” by Spotify and a “new instance of Malicious Compliance” by Tim Sweeney.
Meta’s “pay or consent model” has also been the subject of complaints from various EU watchdogs. The new paid tier allowed users to pay 9.99 a month for each service without ads. The subscription was designed to be a way to get user consent to collect their data if they decide not to pay, but the Commission is concerned with the “binary choice” that Meta is offering. Meta said it had offered to reduce the price of monthly ad-free access in order to appease regulators.
Following weeks of criticism directed at Apple by developers, the EU’s competition chief Margrethe Vestager said a formal investigation would focus on two elements of the smartphone maker’s business: the limits Apple places on developers trying to link from the App Store to their own websites, and how hard Apple makes it to replace default, native apps like Photos or iCloud with third-party alternatives.
Apple has emerged as a focal point for competition officials in both the EU and the US. The EU announcement comes after the US Department of Justice sued the smartphone maker last week, claiming it had created an apple monopoly that hurt consumers.
Four internal Apple emails were cited in the lawsuit as showing how executives knowingly restrict users and developers in unfair ways. In one exchange from 2010, Apple cofounder Steve Jobs and an unnamed Apple executive discussed how a new ad for Amazon’s Kindle gave the impression that it is easy to switch from iPhone to Android. “Not fun to watch,” the executive wrote.
