Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) took the stage today at a courtroom in Luxembourg to counter several measures of the European Union’s Digital Markets Act, which has targeted multiple U.S. tech giants over alleged antitrust violations and levied several massive fines.
The DMA “imposes hugely onerous and intrusive burdens,” Apple attorney Daniel Beard said to the General Court, according to Bloomberg.
Apple is challenging several articles and interpretations of the law in the General Court. The first aspect Apple is countering is the mandate that its iPhone services must work with the hardware of competitors, such as headphones and watches. Apple said this poses risks to “privacy, security and intellectual property rights,” according to the report. Apple also contends its App Store should be immune to the DMA under the current wording of the law, as it doesn’t stand as a singular service. In addition, Apple believes its iMessage service should not have been investigated by the EU, as the service doesn’t directly generate revenue.
“Only Apple has the keys to that walled garden,” said EU commission attorney Paul-John Loewenthal to the court, according to the report. “It decides who gets it and who can offer their products and services to iPhone users … And through such control, Apple has locked in more than a third of European smartphone users.”
In April, Apple was hit with a €500M, or $581M, fine by the EU Commission for breaching “its anti-steering obligation” of the DMA regarding its App Store. Apple is challenging that fine in a separate court action.
The Commission issued a €200M, or $232M, fine against Meta Platforms (META) this spring for DMA violations. It hit Google (GOOG) with massive fines, including a €2.95B, or $3.45B, in September over its online advertising practices. It has also levied a €530M, or $600M, fine against TikTok owner ByteDance (BDNCE) for illegally sending European user data to China, violating data privacy laws. This followed a €345M, or $400M, fine in 2023 for allegedly violating children’s data privacy rights.
Seeking Alpha reached out to Apple regarding the current trial.