Jacques LOIC
Apple’s (NASDAQ:AAPL) recent adjustments to its App Store policies in the European Union were apparently enough to satisfy European Commission regulators and prevent mounting fines, according to Reuters.
The changes include developers paying a 20% processing fee to Apple for purchases made via the App Store. The percentage can drop to 13% for qualifying members of Apple’s small-business program, the report said. Also, developers sending customers outside the App Store for payment will give Apple a percentage ranging from 5% to 15%. The Commission is expected to ratify these changes within the next few weeks.
In late April, the European Commission imposed a €500M, or $587.9M, fine on Apple for preventing app makers from pointing users to cheaper options outside its App Store. The fines can increase over time, with periodic penalties reaching up to 5% of a company’s average daily global revenue. This could have resulted in recurring fines of $58.7M per day.
The lack of alternative payment options violated the Commission’s Digital Markets Act.
Last month, Apple was reportedly working with regulators in Brussels to comply with the DMA.
Apple is one of the six large tech companies the European Commission has deemed a “gatekeeper.”
“Gatekeepers are large digital platforms providing any of a pre-defined set of digital services, such as online search engines, app stores, and messenger services,” the Commission said.
The other gatekeepers include Google (GOOG)(GOOGL), Amazon (AMZN), Meta Platforms (META), Microsoft (MSFT) and ByteDance (BDNCE).