Apple became the first major technology company accused of breaking up-to-date European Union rules on digital markets, three days after the tech giant said it would not make artificial intelligence available in the EU due to regulation.
On Monday, the European Commission said the Apple-owned App Store prevents developers from communicating with users and directly promoting offers to them, a practice known as anti-steering.
“Our initial position is that Apple does not allow full control. Steering is key to ensuring app developers are less dependent on service providers’ app stores and consumers are aware of better offers,” Margrethe Vestager, the EU’s competition chief, said in a statement.
In Case X, European Commissioner for the Internal Market, Thierry Breton, issued a more damning assessment. “Apple has been crowding out innovative companies for too long, denying consumers new opportunities and choices,” he said.
The EU described its Monday charges as “Preliminary findings” Apple now has the opportunity to respond to the allegations, and if no agreement is reached, the bloc will have the power to impose fines – which could be up to 10 percent of the company’s global turnover – before March 2025.
Tensions between Apple and the EU have been rising for months. Brussels launched an investigation into the smartphone manufacturer in March for failing to comply with EU competition rules. Although investigations have also been initiated into Meta and parent Alphabet, Apple’s relationship with European developers has long been the focus of Brussels’ interest.
In March, one of the members of the European Parliament who negotiated the Digital Markets Bill told WIRED that Apple was the logical first target of the new regulations, describing the company as “low-hanging fruit.” Under the DMA, large tech companies cannot prefer their own services over those of competitors.
Developers have raged against the new business terms imposed on them by Apple, describing the company’s policies as “abusive,” “extortion” and “absurdly punitive.”
Apple spokesman Rob Saunders said Monday he was confident the company was complying with the law. “All developers doing business in the EU on the App Store have the opportunity to take advantage of the features we’ve introduced, including the ability to direct app users online to make purchases at very competitive rates,” he says.
Apple on Friday said it would not release artificial intelligence features in the EU this year due to what the company described as “regulatory uncertainty.” “In particular, we are concerned that DMA interoperability requirements may force us to compromise the integrity of our products in a way that compromises user privacy and data security,” Saunders said in a statement. Features affected include iPhone Mirroring, SharePlay screen sharing improvements, and Apple’s first foray into generative artificial intelligence, Apple Intelligence.
Apple isn’t the only company to blame up-to-date EU regulations for its decision to delay up-to-date features. Last year, Google delayed the EU rollout of its ChatGPT rival Bard, and in early June Meta halted plans to train its artificial intelligence on Europeans’ personal data on Facebook and Instagram after talks with privacy regulators. “This is a step backwards for European innovation, competition in AI development and further delays in bringing the benefits of AI to European citizens,” the company said at the time.