Overview
- Article 19 and Germany’s Society for Civil Rights filed a complaint to the European Commission alleging Apple’s App Store terms and device rules violate the DMA, singling out a €1,000,000 stand-by letter of credit as prohibitive for SMEs.
- The groups urged enforcement action, noting the DMA empowers the Commission to impose fines of up to 10% of a company’s global annual revenue.
- Separately at the EU General Court in Luxembourg, Apple argued the DMA imposes “hugely onerous and intrusive burdens” that conflict with security, privacy and property-right protections.
- Apple’s challenge targets interoperability obligations for iPhone hardware and services, the App Store’s designation as a covered service, and the Commission’s past probe into whether iMessage should fall under the law.
- Commission lawyers countered that Apple’s “absolute control” creates a “walled garden” yielding “supernormal profits” and locking in over a third of European smartphone users, as Apple also appeals a €500 million DMA fine issued in April.