The European Commission (EC) is at it again, issuing another hefty fine to a US tech giant. This time it's Meta and the fine is €797.72 million (about $843.1 million). The reason has to do with Meta basically shoving Marketplace down every Facebook user's throat, whether they wanted it or not. This, the EC states, constitutes imposing unfair trading conditions on other online classified ads service providers. Basically, the only classified ads you're likely to see on Facebook are from Meta through Marketplace, and that leaves out any possible competitors because of the way it's tied...
Apple is once again in hot water with the European Commission (EC). The body has issued a call for Apple to stop geo-blocking practices in its App Store, in Apple Arcade, Apple Music, the iTunes Store, as well as the Books and Podcasts apps. The EC together with the Consumer Protection Cooperation (CPC) Network of national consumer authorities in the EU asked Apple to align its practices with the EU's anti-geo-blocking rules. The CPC Network found that Apple Media Services (which is an umbrella term referring to all of the aforementioned Apple services) have a different UI for different...
As anticipated, Apple is off the hook in the EU regarding the limitations it has so far imposed on mobile payments, avoiding a possibly very hefty fine. The European Commission (EC), which had opened an investigation into these practices, has accepted Apple's commitments to open access to the iPhones' NFC chips to enable third-party apps to use tap to pay. Apple has committed to allowing third-party bank apps to access the NFC chips to enable tap to pay. So far this has only been possible through Apple Pay, but that is changing in the EU. The EC initially concluded that Apple...
About half of Apple's keynote at its Worldwide Developers Conference earlier this month was devoted to AI features, and how the company will weave them across the upcoming iOS 18 and iPadOS 18. And if you're in the EU, none of that matters because Apple has decided not to bring the Apple Intelligence (get it? AI!) feature set to iPhones and iPads in the EU. That's because of "uncertainties" regarding the EU's Digital Markets Act which came into being in March and already forced a bunch of concessions from Apple. The European Commission's Executive Vice-President for a Europe fit for the...
iOS 17.4 came out last month with monumental changes for iPhone owners in the EU, including the ability to use third party app stores, and pay for apps and services outside of Apple's App Store. This was made possible by force - namely, the European Digital Markets Act made Apple allow these things, otherwise they never would have happened. A similar case of a 'walled garden' impenetrable to third parties has so far been the ability to pay for stuff using the iPhone's NFC functionality, which the company restricts to only its own service, Apple Pay. That, however, will change in the EU,...
Today the European Commission (EC) has fined Apple a whopping €1.8 billion for abusing its dominant position in the market for the distribution of music streaming apps to iOS and iPadOS users through its App Store. The Commission found that "Apple applied restrictions on app developers preventing them from informing iOS users about alternative and cheaper music subscription services available outside of the app", so-called 'anti-steering provisions'. This, according to the EC, is illegal under EU antitrust rules. The EC's investigation of the matter found that "Apple bans music streaming...