BRUSSELS: This week, 34 digital organizations protested to the European Commission about how Apple’s changes to its services in the EU “make a mockery” of new antitrust laws in the region.
Among them are Spotify and Epic Games, two app developers.
In a letter dated Friday, they expressed their “great concern that Apple’s proposed scheme for compliance with the Digital Markets Act (DMA) will not meet the law’s requirements, thus impeding our ability to deliver the benefits of the DMA to consumers as soon as possible.”
Apple declared in January that it would be changing the way its iOS operating system, Safari browser, and App Store function in the 27 EU member states.
It claimed to be acting in accordance with the DMA, which forbids anti-competitive behavior on the internet throughout the EU.
Apple and other major tech firms labeled as “gatekeepers,” such as Amazon, Microsoft, Meta, Alphabet, the parent company of Google, and ByteDance, the owner of TikTok, have until March 7 to comply with the DMA.
Fines of up to 10% of worldwide income for noncompliance and 20% for repeat violators are threatened by EU law.
Notably, Apple declared that it would be enabling payment methods other than Apple Pay on its iPhones and that it would be admitting competing apps into its App Store for the first time.
However, in order to proceed, app creators had to accept Apple’s new “Core Technology Fee,” which would cost them $0.54 for each download if their apps received more than one million downloads.
That is an enormous expense for many software companies, including Epic Games, the creators of the immensely popular Fortnite game. They claim it will only benefit Apple financially and solidify its position as gatekeeper.
“Apple’s new terms not only disregard both the spirit and letter of the law, but if left unchanged, make a mockery of the DMA and the considerable efforts by the European Commission and EU institutions to make digital markets competitive,” the digital companies and associations stated in their letter.
