Apple Appeals ‘Unprecedented’ €500 Million EU App Store Fine

(Bloomberg) — Apple Inc. appealed a €500 million ($580 million) fine from the European Union, calling the penalty “unprecedented” and the regulator’s required changes to its App Store as “unlawful.”

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The European Commission announced the fine in April under its Digital Markets Act, saying that the iPhone maker ran afoul of rules related to allowing developers to steer users to make purchases outside of its store. In June, Apple changed its EU App Store policies to meet local requirements and avoid additional penalties.

“We believe the European Commission’s decision — and their unprecedented fine — go far beyond what the law requires,” the company said in a statement on Monday. “As our appeal will show, the EC is mandating how we run our store and forcing business terms which are confusing for developers and bad for users.”

As part of the App Store changes in June, the company introduced a tiered commission structure of either 5% or 13% — on top of a 2% user acquisition fee — depending on if they want their app to show up in App Store search suggestions, promotional material or have the ability to receive automatic updates.

Apple said that regulators demanded the new tiered approach in the EU, which it maintains is more confusing for both users and developers. It also said no other app download store is subject to such a structure.

Apple also now more freely allows developers to promote out-of-app payment processing for digital goods, skirting some of its fees. The iPhone maker also said the Commission unlawfully expanded the definition of steering, meaning that developers can point users to make transactions elsewhere in more cases.

The developments are the latest in the company’s global App Store saga. Earlier this year, a California judge ruled that Apple must allow US developers to freely point users to the web to complete in-app-purchase transactions, risking billions a year in revenue.

Over recent years the EU has issued costly penalties against firms, including more than $8 billion in fines against Alphabet Inc.’s Google and a separate order for Apple to pay Ireland back taxes of €13 billion.