In April, Apple was fined 500 million euros for violating the Digital Markets Act in the European Union. Since that penalty was announced, however, the company hasn’t announced any further changes to its App Store Guidelines to avoid further fines.
A new report from the Financial Times today says that Apple is “locked in last-minute” negotiations with the European Commission about ways to ease its App Store anti-steering provisions.
Following the fine in April, Apple was given 60 days to start complying with the DMA regulations, a timeline that is set to expire on Thursday, June 26. Last week, the European Commission suggested that Apple might not face any additional financial penalties once the deadline passed, as the two parties continued to engage in discussions.
Apple’s initial 500 million euro fine centered around its App Store policies that block developers from communicating with users about alternative payment options outside of the App Store. According to Apple’s current App Store Guidelines in the EU, developers are permitted to include one external link to their website; however, Apple charges a 27% commission on purchases made through that link.
According to today’s report from the Financial Times, Apple is expected to imminently “announce some concessions” around its anti-steering rules in the European Union. The European Commission would then be tasked with reviewing the changes to determine if they are enough to comply with the DMA before issuing any additional fines against Apple.
The EU is also targeting Apple’s Core Technology Fee, which requires that developers in the EU pay a 50 cent fee per install per year. Today’s report says that current talks between Apple and the EC have “touched upon” the CTF rules.
The commission confirmed it was engaging closely with Apple “to discuss effective compliance” but that it could not speculate on any potential outcome before the deadline of June 26.
It added that “the commission has ample regulatory powers at its disposal, if Apple continues to be in breach of its obligations under the DMA”.
The report doesn’t dive into specifics on what changes Apple might announce in the EU. One possibility is that Apple updates its App Store rules to allow links to external payments without any prohibitions, as it has also been forced to do in the US as part of its ongoing dispute with Epic Games. Apple, of course, is appealing that ruling.
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