European Commission Slaps Apple with €500 Million Fine Amidst Ongoing Battle with Epic Games

The European Commission fined Apple for €500 million for breaching its anti-steering obligation under the Digital Markets Act (DMA), according to an official news article published by the European Commission. Meta was also fined €300 million for similar reasons.

Under the DMA, “app developers distributing their apps via Apple’s App Store should be able to inform customers, free of charge, of alternative offers outside the App Store, steer them to those offers and allow them to make purchases.” Apple failed to comply with this obligation – an obligation they were warned of during a lawsuit filed by Epic Games in 2020. 

During the initial lawsuit with Epic Games, the court ruled largely in favor of Apple – but the tech company was told that they could not prohibit developers from informing users about alternative payment options outside of the App Store. The Commission found that Apple fails to comply with this obligation, thereby helping warrant the €500 million fine.

The European Commission laid down the law for Apple: 

“As part of today’s decision, the Commission has ordered Apple to remove the technical and commercial restrictions on steering and to refrain from perpetuating the non-compliant conduct in the future, which includes adopting conduct with an equivalent object or effect.”

Since mobile games serve as a large portion of gaming revenue, the laws and regulations set on Apple help dictate the evolving gaming market. Despite the initial legal case having concluded, the situation is still ongoing. Patent Horizon provides more in-depth details surrounding the initial case of Epic Games vs Apple.

In 2020, Epic Games’ essentially attempted to bypass both Google and Apple’s app store payment systems, prompting both tech companies to remove Fortnite from their app store.

Epic Games sued Google before as well, prompting the tech company to open its doors on the Android app store and thereby preventing a monopoly. As for Meta, who were also slapped with a fine, they “breached the DMA obligation to give consumers the choice of a service that uses less of their personal data.”