Apple Hit With 500 Million Euro Fine For DMA Non-Compliance
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The European Commission has just issued its first fines for non-compliance with the Digital Markets Act (DMA), hitting Apple with a penalty of 500 million euros for limiting developers’ abilities to operate outside the App Store ecosystem.
The DMA allows the Commission to levy fines of up to 10 percent of an offending company’s global revenue for a first offense. That would have worked out to a staggering $39 billion in Apple’s case (based on its reported 2024 earnings), so Apple got off relatively light here. In fact, the €500 fine is only a quarter of the €2 billion fine the EC hit Apple with last year in the Spotify case.
That case had been ongoing since 2019, predating the DMA, which only came into effect in 2023. However, it’s almost certain Apple’s controversial anti-steering rules, which were at the heart of the case, would also run afoul of the new legislation, as they’re also at the heart of this latest penalty.
In a press release announcing the ruling, the European Commission specifically found that “Apple breached its anti-steering obligation under the Digital Markets Act (DMA)” by not allowing developers to inform their customers that alternative options are available beyond the App Store.
Under the DMA, app developers distributing their apps via Apple’s App Store should be able to inform customers, free of charge, of alternative offers outside the App Store, steer them to those offers and allow them to make purchases.
European Commission
“Due to a number of restrictions imposed by Apple, app developers cannot fully benefit from the advantages of alternative distribution channels outside the App Store,” the Commission noted, adding that “consumers cannot fully benefit from alternative and cheaper offers as Apple prevents app developers from directly informing consumers of such offers.”
In addition to the €500 million fine, the EC has ordered Apple to “remove the technical and commercial restrictions on steering” and prohibited it from coming up with any other solutions that would have a similar effect on third-party developers.
“The fine imposed on Apple takes into account the gravity and duration of the non-compliance,” the EC notes in the press release, suggesting that the lower amount was proportional to the offense. However, there’s likely another consideration in play here.
In January, the Financial Times reported that the EC was “reassessing its investigations of tech groups” in light of potential pressure from then-president-elect Donald Trump. Even before Trump returned to the White House, EU officials were already expressing nervous concern about potential political fallout.
The EC’s perspective was also likely softened by a change in leadership between the time the investigation concluded and the handing down of penalties. Former EC competition watchdog Margrethe Vestager often seemed like she had an axe to grind against Apple and other American companies; her replacement, Teresa Ribera, seems more circumspect.
As Trump settled into office and his administration began talking about reciprocal tariffs, it became even more likely Apple would get away with a token fine. Trump had repeatedly called EU fines “overseas extortion” and “a form of taxation” against American companies, and threatened to strike back with heavy retaliatory tariffs should any US companies face heavy fines.
It’s also notable that the EC had initially said the penalties would be announced during the first week of April. After those announcements failed to materialize, The Wall Street Journal (Apple News+) reported that the Commission postponed the announcement due to scheduled US trade and diplomatic visits by EU Trade Commissioner Maroš Šef?ovi? and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
The €500 million fine is a decent slap on the wrist for Apple, but it certainly won’t impact the company’s financials the way the €13 billion Irish tax penalty recently did. At around $570 million USD, it’s a fraction of a percent of the $184 billion in profits the company pulled in last year.
