Report: EU ready to charge Apple over DMA violations, with daily fines of up to $50 million

The European Commission has reportedly confirmed its suspicions that Apple is allegedly violating the Digital Markets Act. The company could face significant penalties if found guilty of breaking the EU rules.

The EU regulator is expected to announce its charges against Apple in the coming weeks, the Financial Times reported on June 14. The company still has time to correct its practices as the Commission have only made preliminary findings.

This comes nearly three months after the EU launched probes into Apple, Alphabet (Google), and Meta. It suspected Apple of imposing various restrictions on third-party developers to hinder competition on the App Store. Another concern is that the company’s choice screen for Safari may be preventing users from choosing another browser, as well as changing default settings and easily uninstalling any apps on iOS.

It is worth noting that the DMA, among other things, requires so-called “gatekeepers” to allow third-party developers to promote offers outside of app stores free of charge.

If found guilty, Apple faces daily non-compliance fines of up to 5% of its average daily worldwide turnover. Given that is now around $1 billion, daily penalties could reach $50 million.

Following the FT report, European Commission’s executive VP in charge of competition policy Margrethe Vestager told CNBC that conclusions of the probe will be revealed soon. She noted that Apple issues are “very serious,” adding that “I was very surprised that we would have such suspicions of Apple being non-compliant.”