The brand new app store terms of the fruit company ‘Apple’ are the hot topic for now, since many of the users are claiming it as’malicious compliance’ along with the Digital Markets Act of the EU, which technically agrees with the antitrust law but completely negates its intent.
Now the recent reports indicate that Meta and Microsoft have come together to bring pressure to bear on the EU and appeal to it to reject the new terms of Apple as “onerous” and “prohibitive.”.
Apple, in the latest app store version with the iOS 17.4 build, has introduced a few changes that permit developers to sell their applications even outside of the official Apple App Store, as well as switch to optional terms as per their choice to remain within the store.
Although, for imposing the terms that make it nearly impossible for any developer to make more profit from all this, the brand has been taken to court for’malicious compliance.’ Despite all this, Apple takes a 27% commission on sales made outside of its own App Store, whereas the alternative terms available to European developers include a €0.50 per install per year fee. Obviously, somewhere, that would be impractical for many apps, especially the free ones.
To settle things now, the EU has stated that it is bearing the overall matter in mind and is all set to “take strong action” if it decides Apple’s approach is not acceptable. However, Meta as well as Microsoft have already expressed public opposition to the new terms. Now the EU just needs to come up with one decision: whether the new terms and policies of Apple are sufficient to agree with the DMA, and it is seeking the views of developers to help it reach a conclusion.
And somewhere, it appears that the decision will go against Apple. Basically, the EU can ask for huge fines against Apple for non-compliance, but it is expected that most likely it will formally reject the terms and ask for new proposals from Apple.
