Apple was the subject of a complaint lodged with the EU on Wednesday 22 October by two civil rights organisations concerning the terms and conditions of its App Store and its devices, which are accused of continuing to violate the Digital Markets Act (DMA) (see EUROPE 13725/3).
Article 19 and Gesellschaft für Freiheitsrechte (GFF), the two plaintiff organisations, believe that the American company isn’t complying with its interoperability obligations, which require it to share access to certain parts of its operating system with third-party software developers and device manufacturers (see EUROPE 13651/3).
“Apple, through its terms and conditions governing the App Store and the iOS operating system, makes it practically impossible for third party providers to offer their apps and app stores on Apple’s devices. [The] restrictions and requirements, including requiring third-party app stores to provide access to a ‘security deposit’ of €1 million, effectively exclude smaller providers”, the organisations detail in their complaint.
Last September, the Commission sent several preliminary conclusions for the two specification procedures opened against Apple in December 2024 (see EUROPE 13549/9).
Apple, which is notoriously opposed to any European digital legislation, lodged an appeal with the Court of Justice of the European Union on 30 May against these interoperability requirements. The company believes that they threaten the respect and security of users’ private data and could be harmful to innovation (see EUROPE 13651/3).
See the complaint: https://aeur.eu/f/j3s (Original version in French by Isalia Stieffatre)