Two civil rights groups, Article 19 and Germany’s Society for Civil Rights, filed a complaint with EU antitrust regulators on Wednesday, accusing Apple of violating the Digital Markets Act through its App Store terms and device conditions.
Reuters:
Apple, which has previously said its rules ensure marketplaces meet specific minimum requirements to protect users and developers, dismissed the claims as false and put the blame on the Commission.
“The EC is mandating how we run our store and forcing business terms that are confusing for developers and bad for users,” Apple said in an email.
“Months ago, we notified the EC of our plans to roll out additional changes to the letter of credit requirements to provide more flexibility for developers but the Commission asked us not to.”
The civil rights groups singled out a stand-by letter of credit (SBLC) of 1 million euros required from developers who want to develop apps for distribution in Apple’s App Store or who want to install a third-party app store as a native app in Apple’s iOS and iPadOS.
“A 1,000,000 euro SBLC can impose a recurring annual cost and collateral requirements that many SMEs cannot meet,” said the 16-page complaint seen by Reuters.
The groups urged the Commission to fine Apple. DMA penalties can be as much as 10% of a company’s global annual revenue.
MacDailyNews Take: About the only thing working well in the EU is its red tape machine.
Please help support MacDailyNews — and enjoy subscriber-only articles, comments, chat, and more — by subscribing to our Substack: macdailynews.substack.com. Thank you!
Support MacDailyNews at no extra cost to you by using this link to shop at Amazon.
The post Apple hit with EU antitrust complaint over App Store policies appeared first on MacDailyNews.
