Apple appeals $570 million antitrust fine, says EU blew off compliance collaboration
In an appeal of a $570 million fine for violation of antitrust law, Apple says it had no idea how to comply, because the EU repeatedly ignored calls for feedback.
An EU flag with the App Store logo
Despite the White House saying it won't tolerate the EU fining Apple, and the EU saying it won't be bullied, Apple has been fined $570 million for alleged non-compliance with the Digital Markets Act (DMA). Now Apple is appealing against the fine, and according to Politico, the company is pushing back against the EU's entire process.
Throughout the whole time that the DMA has been first mooted, then implemented, and finally made into law, Apple has repeatedly said that it is constantly working with the EU to ensure compliance. Now it's saying it was more that it was like it tried to, but the EU wasn't interested in talking about what would solve the issues to regulatory satisfaction.
Specifically, in summer 2024, Apple reportedly offered to drop its anti-steering rules governing how developers can communicate with users. It's claimed that the European Commission told Apple to hold off on that, while it consulted with developers.
Apple not dropping its anti-steering rules then became central to why the EU fined Apple in April 2025.
Maybe Apple was a little chagrined by this, but reportedly it wasn't surprised. Apple has accused the EU of not talking with Apple for the last few months of 2024, in the build-up to the fine.
In October 2024, an unknown Apple executive complained about this to two European Commission bodies, the Directorate-General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology (DG Connect), and Directorate-General for Competition (DG Competition).
This letter from Apple says that the European Commission teams had "made clear" to them that the EU intended to issue a "potentially significant fine." It specifically calls out then-Commissioner Margrethe Vestager as being responsible for this decision.
Vestager was the EU's anti-competition chief for a decade, during which time she was responsible for the $2 billion fine against Apple Music. She also instigated the long-running Ireland tax dispute, which Tim Cook described as "total political crap."
The complaints in that October letter, and now also the reported basis of Apple's appeal, follow the same lines as a public statement Apple made after the ruling was announced.
"We have spent hundreds of thousands of engineering hours and made dozens of changes to comply with this law, none of which our users have asked for," Apple spokesperson Emma Wilson summarized at the time. "Despite countless meetings, the Commission continues to move the goal posts every step of the way."
How the EU has responded
In response to press questioning about Apple's accusations, the European Commission has insisted that it has an open door policy for firms to consult with it. However, it's the "sole responsibility" of the firms to comply with the law.
"The Commission made it very clear whenever Apple's proposals were at the outset falling short of effective compliance and encouraged the company to seek market feedback," European Commission spokesperson Lea Zuber said. "Last [month's] decision only addresses the solution that Apple decided to roll out, not any other hypothetical approach that the company might have been considering."
That's a disingenuous response, given that Apple claims it offered a direct and specific solution to the EU's core response. Equally, though, even if the EU told Apple to wait, if the company believed its proposal would answer the concern, it's not clear why it didn't implement it.
Reportedly, Meta -- which was fined at the same time as Apple -- did implement changes that led the EU to reduce its fine.
It's not known what communication the EU and Meta had over those changes. However, the EU's announcement of the fines included a claim that the European Commission "continues its engagement with Apple and Meta to ensure compliance with the Commission's decisions and the DMA more generally."
No date has yet been announced for a hearing in Apple's appeal against the EU fine.
Separately, about the same anti-competition practices that the Apple has been accused of by the EU, recently led to US District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers ordering changes to its App Store rules.
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Comments
One of the things that has always bothered me is that there isn’t any news about other companies like Nintendo, or Sony having proprietary hardware and not running afoul of the EU. Is that because they grease the wheels and Apple does not?
Some companies try to operate like EU doesn't have antitrust, anti-corruption, or privacy regulations at all. They fail miserably. Old tech like IBM... not a case in 15 years and they didn't even get fined for that. I would say it is a problem at C-suite level in some companies and Apple is on that list. It really is for Cook or the board to fix it.
It is often literally impossible to comply with the letter of the law when it comes to international regulations. Or at least completely infeasible. Thus, every company has to make strategic decisions about how strictly they will try to comply with which regulations in which countries. These are often C-suite and board level decisions.
I have no reason to believe there is anything to "fix" with respect to how Apple handles this on-going challenge. It could very well be that a half billion dollar fine is the optimal outcome. I mean, sure, Apple doesn't want write a check that big, but it could well be that the expected cost of half-assed compliance was lower than the expected cost of rigorous compliance.
I will also point out that Apple is a leader in privacy, so tossing antirust and privacy in the same regulatory bucket is disingenuous. Nor have I heard of any corruptions complaints against our favorite fruit company.