500 million euros penalty: Apple makes an appeal against the DMA fee

Apple does not want to pay the 500 million euros that the EU Commission had placed on the group in April due to alleged violations of the Digital Markets Act (DMA). The group now officially appealed to the European Union court (ECG) because “we believe that the decision of the European Commission – and its unprecedented punishment – goes far beyond what the law demands”.

Apple: EU Commission controls App Store

The iPhone group has the hope of showing the appeal that the Commission attempts to control the working method of the App Store by arrangement and impose “(us) terms and conditions that are confusing for developers and bad for users”. Apple has implemented the specifications to avoid daily penalty payments. “We will share the facts with the court.”

The question now is what opportunities Apple has in the procedure that could last for years. In the past, the group had already lost before the European courts and had to pay a high additional payment because of its Irish tax saving model. So it is quite possible that the EU institutions do not agree with Apple. The appeal in court also took the political side of the action. At Apple, one seems to hope (also) that Trump administration will continue to put pressure on the EU Commission, as well as in Canada With a digital tax was.

Confusing new regulations

Apple had recently changed its app store rules in the EU again and, above all, caused massive confusion among developers who are now confronted with various, sometimes unusable “animal”. Apple announced that it would implement DMA guidelines. Opponents like Epic Games boss Tim Sweeney consider this to be “Malicious Compliance”, i.e. malicious adjustments to the right.

Among other things, Apple should refrain from steering and allow app providers to use their own payment routes. But Apple still wants to see money because the group considers the use of its platform to be a fee. With the new model, the costs are to fall to 20 percent instead of the currently 30 percent, but only under certain circumstances. The whole model is extremely confused. How the EU Commission reacts to Apple’s calling is still unclear. The appeal now lodged should not be confused with another before the ECG, which was submitted in early June. This was the focus of Apple about EU obligations to make its platform more compatible with third-party providers or to give their devices access to more content.