The relationship between Apple and the European Union is getting more bitter every day and although there are a few episodes that have raised this tension, such as the confrontation between Spotity and Apple, in which European regulators ruled in favor of Spotify, most of the conflict corresponds to the DMA, the rule to which he said. to adapt to iOS 17.4, but it brought a huge number of conditions for developers who wanted to port their apps to iOS without going through the App Store and/or the Apple Pay payment gateway.

The reaction of much of the technology sector to the conditions imposed by Apple Don’t be latewas joint and emphatic, and evidently the European regulators were not left out either, although they initially acted as they could be expected to, that is, to gather information and analyze it in detail to verify whether those in Cupertino had indeed imposed conditions that de facto contradicted the spirit of the WFD .

As soon as this preliminary investigation was completed, the European Commission communicated its findings to Apple, published them and, as expected, they do not exactly leave Apple in a good position and, moreover, compromise its operations in the common European space. The conclusions reached by the Commission focus on the three business conditions imposed by Apple and confirm that these prevent developers from freely guiding their clientsand The economic commissions imposed by Cupertino are far above what is considered absolutely necessary.

As indicated earlier, we are talking about an interim investigation at this point, so Apple will now be able to present whatever arguments it deems necessary to justify its actions. Of course, there has been plenty of time since then The investigation will not be completed until March 2025, giving those from Cupertino good space to build their defense. And if you don’t, the consequences that you may face are more than significant.

And what are the consequences? Well, Apple could primarily face a fine of up to 10% of your worldwide trading volumethe amount that can be increased up to 20% in case of recurrence. And it doesn’t end there, if Apple persists in systematically violating some element of the rule, the regulator can demand that the gatekeeper, in this case Apple, sell one or more parts of its business in the same way it was forced to do so. Microsoft completes UK Activision-Blizzard purchase.

We told you a few days ago Apple won’t be bringing some of the most exciting features unveiled at WWDC 2024 to the European Common Space, due to concerns specifically in relation to DMA. Now that we see this move by the EC that has previously penetrated the public, it is difficult not to connect the two dots.