Apple's App Store rules are still in violation of EU policy

After levying a €500 million fine against Apple in April, the European Commission (EC) says that Apple is still out of compliance with the Digital Markets Act (DMA) and has less than 30 days remaining to comply. The DMA requires that Apple allow developers to inform their customers about sales or other offers outside the App Store.

In the 68-page document released today from the EC's April decision, the commission found that Apple's policies were plainly anti-competitive and said the company added unnecessary hurdles — referred to as "anti-steering" rules — to completing external transactions.

One such anti-steering strategy the EC took umbrage with was Apple's "scare sheets." When users clicked to navigate to an external payment link, a message would appear, reading “you’re about to go to an external website. Apple is not responsible for the privacy or security of purchases made on the web.” Apple could face hefty periodic penalty payments as high as five percent of daily global revenue if the company doesn’t bring its policies into compliance within the EU.

In a statement to 9to5Mac, Apple expressed its disappointment with the newly released details, saying “there is nothing in the 70-page decision released today that justifies the European Commission’s targeted actions against Apple, which threaten the privacy and security of our users in Europe and force us to give away our technology for free." Later in the statement, the company called the decision "bad for innovation, bad for competition, bad for our products, and bad for users."

Apple will appeal the decision before the June 22 deadline laid out in the EC's decision.

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