Recently, European Parliament members Stephanie Yon-Courten from France and Rene Repasi from Germany have raised concerns about Apple's App Store possibly violating the European Union's Digital Markets Act (DMA). Notably, the App Store has announced new terms for its operation within the EU, with the company expressing its commitment to comply with the newly introduced DMA legislation. Previously, Apple had proposed that developers choose between the existing terms and new conditions. Under the new terms, applications downloaded more than 1 million times are required to pay Apple an additional Technology Fee (CTF) of €0.5 per user. The EU lawmakers find this approach unacceptable, stating that the new terms are so detrimental that many developers would rather stay within the current unfair system. According to Yon-Courten and Repasi, Apple's implementation of this scheme forces developers to choose between bad and worse. Currently, developers are unable to benefit from the DMA, while the new terms are also unsuitable for them as "any benefits are conditional upon the payment of exorbitant fees." At the end of January, it was revealed that Apple had convinced EU representatives not to apply the Digital Markets Act to iPads. Earlier reports indicated that starting March 5, 2024, the corporation would need to align iOS operations with DMA requirements.
