Apple Faces Daily $50M Penalty [Update]

Apple Faces Daily $50M Penalty [Update]

🟣 Content Overview :
  • EU's DMA allows independent payment systems for in-app purchases.
  • Apple may face $50 million daily fines for non-compliance.
  • New rules aim to reduce Apple and Google's 30% cut on purchases.
  • Apple's "Core Technology Fee" seen as a loophole.
  • EU also investigating Meta and Alphabet for similar issues.

Streamers Visuals

Quartz

The Root

The Inventory

Gaming Reviews News Tips and More

Home

Latest

News

Guides

Reviews

Games

Culture

Opinion

Anime

The Bests

Editions

Español

Deutsch

Français

Discover

Home

Latest

News

Guides

Reviews

Games

Culture

Opinion

Anime

The Bests

Editions

Español

Deutsch

Français

More

Log In

Sign Up

Send us a Tip

Shop

Subscribe

Extra

About

Streamers Visuals Store

Advertising

Privacy

Jobs

Terms of Use

Explore our other sites

jalopnik

Streamers Visuals

quartz

theroot

theinventory

2024 GO Media

We may earn a commission from links on this page

APPLE COULD BE FINED 50 MILLION DOLLARS A DAY

The megacorp may not be complying with new EU laws when it comes to games like Fortnite.

By John Walker

Published Wednesday 12:15 PM

We may earn a commission from links on this page

Back in March, the European Union brought in new rules designed to stop companies like Apple and Google from blocking third-party companies running their own in-app item stores.

This was supposed to carve a path for games like Fortnite to return to mobile, allowing in-game purchases without using Apple or Google's stores, thus regaining 30 percent of every purchase.

But it may be the case that the EU thinks Apple still isn't playing fair and could start imposing enormous fines.

SUGGESTED READING

  • Everything That's Happening In The Apple vs Epic Case
  • Epic Confirms Massive Loss
  • Fortnite Not Returning To Apple Any Time Soon
  • Epic Wins Big Fortnite Lawsuit Against Apple
  • Streamers Visuals Goes Hands-On At The Apple Developer Showcase

The theory was the EU's Digital Markets Act (DMA) would allow apps and games to run their own independent payment systems for in-app purchases.

Anything previously launched on iOS required all payments to go through Apple's systems, where the company would take a 30 percent cut every time.

Companies like Epic loudly argued that such a system was deeply unfair.

While it's hard to pick a side between the greedy corps taking money off the apps and the apps taking money off their customers, Epic was right that it was anti-competitive.

The EU agreed, announcing the DMA in 2023 and bringing it into law this year.

However, cheeky Apple immediately constructed its own loopholes by technically allowing apps to run their own stores but only if they paid a so-called Core Technology Fee of $0.50 per install of their app.

The charge only applied to companies with over a million installs in the previous 12 months but was obviously aimed at ensuring the company would still get its tithe.

On its face, it is very obviously not in the spirit of the new rules.

It's also worth noting that surprise breakout success apps could be especially badly stung by this, suddenly discovering charges of $1 per every two installs of their viral product plus an additional three percent fees for using iOS's payment processing software, quickly getting into a whole heap of trouble.

Tim Sweeney was predictably unimpressed.

In January 2024, he described it as a devious new instance of "Malicious Compliance."

It seems the EU somewhat agrees.

According to a report in the Financial Times, the paper's sources say the European Commission believes Apple is not complying with the new law and will soon begin imposing fines—the first brought under the DMA.

And those fines aren't cheap.

If it's officially announced that Apple is in violation of the DMA, the maximum charge is five percent of average daily turnover.

In Apple's case, this is a terrifying $1 billion, meaning $50 million a pop.

Meanwhile, the same EU group is investigating whether Meta (Facebook) and Alphabet (Google) might also be falling foul of the rules.

The FT also notes that Apple could still have time to change its new system to avoid the fines.

Apple told the FT that the company is "confident our plan complies with the DMA" and that they will "continue to constructively engage with the European Commission as they conduct their investigations."

Correction 06/20/2024 8:11 AM ET: This article and headline previously incorrectly stated the fine would be $1 billion a day due to ambiguous wording in other reporting. We've since spotted our error and fixed it.

Continue reading.

  • DESCARGA INSTANTÁNEA

    ¡Seguro y rápido! Pague y descargue al instante.

  • +9000 CLIENTES SATISFECHOS

    Únase a nuestra comunidad mundial de clientes satisfechos y seguros.

  • DEVOLUCIONES SIN RIESGO

    ¡Compra con confianza, ofrecemos devoluciones fáciles y sin riesgo!

  • SERVICIO DE ATENCIÓN AL CLIENTE 24/7

    ¡Nunca estará solo con nuestro servicio de atención al cliente! Haga clic aquí para obtener ayuda inmediata.