Apple has appealed a 500 million euro (£430m) fine imposed by the European Union over its App Store practices, claiming the fine is “unprecedented” and accusing the European Commission of going “far beyond what the law requires” in its decision.
The fine was imposed in April, with the Commission saying at the time that Apple had breached the anti-steering rules under the bloc’s Digital Markets Act.
The alleged steering breaches refer to Apple’s policy of barring developers from informing users about offers or payment methods outside of Apple’s own App Store.
‘Confusing’
Apple introduced new App Store developer terms late last month in an effort to avoid daily fines of 5 percent of its average daily worldwide revenue, or about 50m euros a day.
The changes, which institute a complex array of different commissions, continue to demand commissions on payments made through methods outside of the App Store, a practice disallowed in the US after a court injunction earlier this year.
California judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in a 30 April decision found Apple in wilful violation of a 2021 decision and ordered Apple to immediately cease impeding developers’ communication with users and levying commissions on off-app purchases.
The order has led to immediate changes in the US, where for instance Amazon’s Kindle iPhone app now includes a button allowing users to buy books from Amazon’s website.
Impeding developers’ communication with users, in other words “steering”, and levying commissions on off-app purchases are two of the practices the European Commission has also ordered Apple to stop under the DMA.
Apple said it had filed its appeal with the EU’s second-highest court, the General Court, because Commission was forcing it to run its App Store under “confusing” terms.
“As our appeal will show, the EC is mandating how we run our store and forcing business terms which are confusing for developers and bad for users,” the company stated.
Apple said the Commission unlawfully expanded the definition of “steering” to include not only allowing developers to link to external websites, but also allowing them to promote offers inside an app.
‘Malicious compliance’
The DMA was intended to force large tech companies to allow more competition.
Apple’s competitors have accused it of delaying compliance by any means necessary in order to protect its lucrative business model.
Tim Sweeney, chief executive of gaming firm Epic, which is involved in a long-running dispute with Apple over App Store fees, accused Apple of “malicious compliance” in its approach to the new EU competition rules.
Last month Apple also appealed with the General Court a Commission order for it to open its iOS mobile operating system to increased competition.
In April the EU also fined Facebook parent Meta Platforms 200m euros over its policy of forcing users to either pay a fee or agree to have their data harvested.