After Apple announced a sweeping set of changes to its App Store rules, the European Commission began confidentially gathering feedback from developers and businesses to assess Apple’s compliance with the Digital Markets Act. They have until Monday to respond.
A bit of context
Last June, Apple announced a comprehensive set of changes to its App Store rules in Europe, in its new bid to appease regulators and avoid daily fines.
The new guidelines included policy changes, as well as new business terms that introduced a tiered Store Services Fee, a new Initial Acquisition Fee, and a Core Technology Commission as an alternative to the outgoing Core Technology Fee.
You can read about the new rules in detail in our original post.
The EC’s inquiry
As reported by Politico, following the announcement of the new rules, the European Commission “sent out confidential questionnaires to business users and interested parties last month to gather feedback on Apple’s proposed changes.“
When asked by the publication about the questionnaires, an EC spokesperson said the following:
“We can confirm that we have sent Requests for Information (RFIs) to app developers to gather feedback on the latest changes that Apple has made to the app store rules to comply with the Digital Markets Act.”
Politico says that the interested parties have until Monday to turn in their questionnaires, which will allow for a more comprehensive picture of whether (or how much) Apple’s changes comply with the intention and letter of the law.
If Apple is still found noncompliant, the company could face daily fines of up to 5% of its average daily worldwide turnover in the preceding financial year.
It is worth remembering that in April, the EC fined Apple €500 million in its first DMA non-compliance ruling. Apple formally appealed the decision in July, and the case is currently pending before the General Court of the European Union.
Do you think Apple’s current set of changes is DMA-compliant? Let us know in the comments.
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