No link ban, no commission: Apple loses control over the App Store

Apple’s app store business model begins to crumble. A “Cease & Desist” arrangement forces the group in the EU to delete controversial rules for app providers by the end of June. This has already happened on the home market USA. Apple must allow developers and app makers to be able to refer to their own offers in the future; The iPhone group can no longer collect a high commission. This works from the one published on Monday Non-compliance decision by the EU Commission. The regulators had already announced at the end of April that certain app store rules violate the law on digital markets (Digital Markets Act, DMA).

EU: Apple’s DMA violations “at least negligent”

The Commission diplomatically described the fact that Apple has practically ignored the requirements of the new EU Competition Act for over a year for over a year. Therefore, it has imposed a penalty of 500 million euros against Apple. If the company does not comply with the injunctive relief order, a recurring penalty payment is also threatened in an even unknown amount.

In order to follow the DMA, Apple allowed developers last year to put links to their own offers – but puts many stones in their way. Providers have to accept new terms and conditions, can only set links very limited and have to show a full -surface and daunting -formulated warndialog. On top of that, Apple ultimately demands an almost unchanged high – and in subscriptions recurring – commission on external purchases that customers make on the web, for example. This procedure clearly violates the Digital Markets Act, according to the EU Commission.

So -called core platform services of gatekeers – including the App Store – must allow providers to communicate “free of charge” with their customers and, for example, to point out their own offers. For the “first acquisition”, however, Apple may estimate a remuneration – but only once, emphasized the competitive keepers. The company itself has to work out how such a remuneration could be designed.

External purchases in US app store

In the United States, the judge in the large cartel dispute between Epic Games and Apple recently forced the iPhone Group to open this opening. Large and smaller providers used the new possibilities directly: Amazon now sells e-books in the Kindle app, Spotify linked to his own subscription offers and even Fortnite is back in the App Store-together with a web shopping option, with which EPIC only provoked the exhaustion by Apple five years ago.

Apple has thus lost a central part of control over its app store business model: Rules such as the link ban have long ensured that as many app providers as possible used the group’s stipulated in-app purchase interface. Apple automatically retains up to 30 percent commission for the digital content purchased above. The group warns of a loss of billions and is fighting both decisions and has already appealed in the United States. The company also wants to contest the EU decision, which Apple described as “unfair”.