Report: EU close to agreement with Apple in App Store dispute
The EU Commission and Apple are reportedly close to a solution in the DMA proceedings. Meta could also escape more severe penalties.
Apple logo with EU flag in the background: billions at stake.
(Image: daily_creativity/Shutterstock)
According to a report on Wednesday, Apple, and the EU Commission could soon reach an agreement in the dispute over the interpretation of the Digital Market Act (DMA) in connection with the opening of the iOS App Store. According to the Financial Times, the iPhone group and Brussels are "close" to a deal. Apple had previously been ordered to pay half a billion euros. The Commission's measures were not sufficient to give developers new opportunities to distribute their software on the iPhone – including alternative app marketplaces, link options to their own payment platforms, sideloading and other measures to open up the iOS platform.
Threat of very high penalties
Back in July, Brussels, and the EU were said to be close to an agreement. This now seems to be finally in the offing – also because the EU wants to avoid an open war with the US government, which had threatened retaliatory measures in the event of excessive regulation of its companies. Under the DMA, Apple could face regular daily fines in addition to the 500 million Euros – up to 5 percent of global sales per day. What's more, the current proceedings are not the only ones: the contractual arrangements between Apple and developers are also still under scrutiny.
Apple recently announced further adjustments to the App Store in June, which developers found extremely complicated – there was also criticism of the design of the (reduced) fees. However, these changes were probably considered positive by the EU. It is unknown what a possible deal between Apple and the EU Commission might look like. There are also numerous other questions outside the App Store complex. For example, the EU wants to dictate to Apple in detail which areas of the system the company must open – right down to protocol level. Apple therefore took an unusually aggressive stance on the DMA and even called for its abolition.
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Meta also on the verge of an agreement
According to the Financial Times, Meta is also close to reaching an agreement with the EU. The company is actually supposed to pay 200 million euros – and it is also threatened with a daily fine. Among other things, the proceedings concern the "pay or okay" model, in which Meta forces users to take out expensive monthly subscriptions if they would rather not be tracked – something that civil libertarians classify as a GDPR violation.
It is also said to be a problem that users are not given sufficient explanation of the options available to them. Neither Meta nor Apple commented on the report. Kyle Andeer, Apple's Chief Compliance Officer, said in June that the company had done "everything we had to in the face of the threat of enormous future penalties".
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