EU has accused Apple of violating new tech regulations, and it might face hefty fines.

TFD – Apple has been charged by EU regulators with violating stringent digital competition rules by limiting app developers’ ability to point users to cheaper alternatives. This unprecedented move under the new Digital Markets Act could lead to significant fines for the tech giant if found guilty.

Regulators in the European Union have charged Apple with violating stringent new regulations governing digital competition by restricting the ability of app developers to freely point users to less expensive alternatives.

The preliminary conclusions of the European Commission’s investigation were released in March. In the event that the corporation is found guilty, its annual global revenue of $383 billion might be fined, according to a statement released on Monday by the EU’s executive arm. It further stated that if the corporation commits the same mistake again, the penalties might rise to 20% of its worldwide sales.

With its move on Monday, the Commission has accused a business for the first time of violating the historic Digital Markets Act. The DMA is a comprehensive set of competition regulations that went into effect in March with the goal of limiting the influence of Big Tech.

That same month, the Commission declared that it was looking into allegations of DMA violations by Facebook parent Meta (META), Google parent Alphabet (GOOGL), and Apple (AAPL).

The Commission has named these three corporations as “gatekeepers”—large technology companies that are essential to consumer-business interactions because of their connections to “core platform services,” which include app stores and online marketplaces.

Within a year of the start of its probe on March 25, the Commission must decide definitively whether Apple has violated the DMA.

In a statement released on Monday, Apple stated that it has “made a number of changes to comply with the DMA in response to feedback from developers and the European Commission” during the last few months. We are certain that our strategy conforms with the law.

Increased inspection

According to the guidelines of Apple’s app store, “developers cannot provide pricing information within the app” or get in touch with users “in any other way” to direct them to deals that are accessible on other platforms, the Commission has provisionally determined.

According to the Commission, Apple only permits developers to use “steering” in the form of links in their apps that take users to a web page. However, it stated that the “link-out process is subject to several restrictions.”

The EU’s commissioner for digital and competition, Margrethe Vestager, stated in a statement on Monday that “today is a very important day for the effective enforcement of the DMA.” “Guiding is essential to make sure consumers are aware of better offers and that app developers are less reliant on gatekeepers’ app stores.”

In a statement, Apple said: “All developers conducting business in the European Union on the App Store are welcome to take advantage of the features we have added, such as the ability to send app customers to the web to finish purchases at a very competitive rate. We will keep listening to the European Commission and interacting with it, as we always have.

The Commission also said that it had launched a second inquiry to see if Apple’s new app developer contract restrictions violate the DMA. A “core technology fee,” which costs third-party app developers €0.50 ($0.54) every time their program is loaded, is one of these requirements.

Only a few months have passed since the Commission fined Apple €1.84 billion ($1.97 billion) for prohibiting customers of competing music streaming services like Spotify from informing iPhone owners that there were less expensive options for subscribing outside of Apple’s app store. The US tech titan was subject to the bloc’s first-ever antitrust penalty.

At the time, Apple stated in a statement that it intended to appeal the charge and that software developers “compete on a level playing field” in its app store.

Ahead of the DMA’s implementation, Apple declared in January that it would be modifying the way it handled apps in the European Union. This includes intentions to significantly lower its app store prices and permit third-party app stores on iPhones and iPads for the first time in the company’s history.

Further details have been added to this story.