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Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) is nearing another charge sheet from the European Commission unless the company quickly fixes alleged violations under the region’s Digital Markets Act that led to a €500M fine earlier this year, Bloomberg News reported, citing people with knowledge of the matter.
Officials are prepared to give Apple an ultimatum to allow developers to inform customers of cheaper deals away from the App Store, while the June 26 deadline approaches, the report added.
If unobserved, that step would then lead to new fines under the region’s. Apple could still avoid a future escalation if it manages to appease the EU antitrust agency’s concerns with an imminent proposal that is enough to fix the alleged violations, the report noted.
Apple and the European Commission did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Seeking Alpha.
In April, the European Commission fined Apple €500M noting that Apple breached its anti-steering obligation under the DMA. The regulator said that time that it informed Apple of its preliminary view that the company’s contract terms concerning alternative app distribution breached the DMA. Meta Platforms (META) was also fined for €200M for allegedly breaching the DMA.
A spokesperson for Apple told the media outlet that that EU regulators keep changing the goalposts for what DMA compliance is, making it impossible to comply with their steering decision. Apple noted that it is spending hundreds of thousands of hours working to adhere to the bloc’s ever-changing regulations.
A spokesperson for the European Commission told Bloomberg that it would not speculate on the next steps while Apple still has time to submit a proposal. The spokesperson added that regulators have enough regulatory powers at their disposal if Apple continues to be in breach of its obligations under the DMA.
Earlier in June, Apple noted that it is challenging an order from the European Commission directing it to make its operating system, iOS, more compatible with competitor tech companies’ products under the DMA.
In September 2023, the European Commission designated for the first time six gatekeepers — Alphabet, Amazon (AMZN), Apple, Meta, Microsoft (MSFT) and Chinese tech giant ByteDance (BDNCE) — under the DMA. Certain products provided by these companies come under the DMA and the EU’s Digital Services Act, or DSA — which regulates online intermediaries and platforms that millions of Europeans use every day. The DSA protects consumers and their rights online.