{"id":402201,"date":"2024-11-04T17:41:55","date_gmt":"2024-11-04T16:41:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2024\/11\/04\/commissione-apple-digital-markets-act\/"},"modified":"2024-11-08T14:40:33","modified_gmt":"2024-11-08T13:40:33","slug":"eu-commission-to-assess-effectiveness-of-apples-measures-regarding-digital-markets-act","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2024\/11\/04\/eu-commission-to-assess-effectiveness-of-apples-measures-regarding-digital-markets-act\/","title":{"rendered":"EU Commission to assess effectiveness of Apple&#8217;s measures regarding Digital Markets Act"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Brussels &#8211; <strong>Apple<\/strong> is ready to undergo <strong>checks by the European Commission<\/strong> regarding the <strong>operating system of its tablets<\/strong>. The goal is to assess (carefully) whether the implemented actions\u00a0<span style=\"margin: 0px; padding: 0px;\"><strong>conform<\/strong><\/span><strong>\u00a0with the obligations of the Digital Markets Act (DMA)<\/strong>, the European law on digital markets.<\/p>\n<p>With the <a href=\"https:\/\/ec.europa.eu\/commission\/presscorner\/detail\/en\/ip_22_6423\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">DMA<\/a>, the European Union wanted to make a strong contribution to limiting unfair competitive practices in the European digital market. The first step was\u00a0<span style=\"margin: 0px; padding: 0px;\"><strong>identifying<\/strong><\/span><strong>\u00a0large companies in the digital market<\/strong>, defined as &#8220;<strong>gatekeepers<\/strong>&#8220;.<\/p>\n<p>Clearly, Apple could only but be included in the list of the &#8220;big boys&#8221; with all the obligations that go with it. The tablet-related iPadOS system was included <a href=\"https:\/\/ec.europa.eu\/commission\/presscorner\/detail\/en\/ip_24_2363\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">at a later date<\/a> as a main platform service, with the gatekeeper obligation package extended to it as well.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"margin: 0px; padding: 0px;\">To give some numbers, we are\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2024\/03\/06\/all-obligations-under-the-digital-markets-act-have-come-into-force\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">talking about platforms<\/a>\u00a0with revenues of at least <strong>\u20ac7.5 billion in the EU<\/strong>\u00a0for the previous three years, market valuation of more than 75 billion, and<strong> at least 45 million\u00a0end users per month<\/strong>, combined with 10 thousand business users in the EU.<\/span>\u00a0Added to this is the control of one or more platform services in at least three member states, which Apple has with AppStore or Safari.<\/p>\n<p>In essence, we are talking about <strong>the digital, whose market control<\/strong>, if unregulated, <strong>risks becoming oligopolistic<\/strong>.\u00a0<span style=\"margin: 0px; padding: 0px;\">Therefore, the Digital Markets Act has allowed for the establishment of obligations on which Apple must demonstrate compliance, as it would like to demonstrate in the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.apple.com\/legal\/dma\/NCS-October-2024.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">report<\/a>\u00a0related to iPadOS.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Apple&#8217;s system has always had the characteristic of being a closed system, which has caused no small problems with the European Commission.<\/p>\n<p>The openings required by the DMA, the famous &#8220;<strong>interoperability<\/strong>&#8220;, &#8220;pose <strong>greater risks to users and developers<\/strong>,&#8221; reads the report, which Apple is working on to ensure security for its customers.\u00a0<span style=\"margin: 0px; padding: 0px;\">Apple is asked to\u00a0<strong>allow its users and developers to use software external to the one connected to the company<\/strong>\u00a0while also avoiding absorbing emerging companies with so-called\u00a0killer acquisitions\u00a0(which then greatly impact competitors).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"margin: 0px; padding: 0px;\"><strong>There is no flexibility in the DMA on pre-installed software applications<\/strong>, on which Apple has made strides, going so far as to\u00a0<strong>permit the deletion, &#8220;for EU users,&#8221; of all present applications<\/strong>\u00a0(&#8220;Only Settings and (on iOS) Phone will not be deletable,&#8221; it reads).<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Unexpectedly, much work has been done on <strong>greater openness to developers, users, and the non-Apple world<\/strong>. One interesting aspect concerns <strong>data migration between devices<\/strong>, on which the American giant had always maintained the most marked isolation. The report shows that &#8220;Apple is developing a solution to help mobile operating system vendors develop easier ways to\u00a0<strong>transfer data from an iPhone or iPad to a non-Apple phone or tablet<\/strong>. Apple plans to make this solution available by the fall of 2025.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"margin: 0px; padding: 0px;\">In addition to those already mentioned,\u00a0<span style=\"margin: 0px; padding: 0px;\">numerous\u00a0<strong>violations have been identified in the DMA<\/strong><\/span>, such as requiring app developers to use certain services to appear in app stores or ranking their products or services higher.<\/span>\u00a0<span style=\"margin: 0px; padding: 0px;\">The fines set go\u00a0<strong>up to 10 per cent of global turnover and 20 per cent in case of recidivism<\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Companies are better off sticking to the obligations, on whose assessment the Commission has the final say as the &#8220;watchdog&#8221; of enforcement. <strong>The Cupertino-located giant necessarily had to heed the &#8216;ear-pulling&#8217; from Brussels<\/strong>, which had already emphasized the need for Apple users to set their preferred web browser, have alternative app stores, and allow even accessory devices full functionality on the operating system.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Apple has already been in trouble in the EU because of its tendency to adopt policies that abuse its dominant position<\/strong>.\u00a0<span style=\"margin: 0px; padding: 0px;\">The EU and European competition laws did not like Apple&#8217;s tendency to\u00a0<strong>impede (indirectly) its users from using third-party apps and not its own<\/strong>, costing it a\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2024\/03\/04\/eu-fines-apple-1-8-billion-for-abuse-of-dominant-position-in-music-streaming-market\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">1.8 billion fine in the Apple-Spotify case<\/a>.<\/span>\u00a0Or\u00a0<strong>the inability of third-party developers to access iPhone<\/strong> technologies, as in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2024\/07\/11\/european-commission-and-apple-call-a-truce-brussels-accepts-cupertinos-commitments-on-mobile-wallets\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> NFC tag<\/a> case at the core of\u00a0digital wallets.<\/p>\n<p><strong>European rules on digital markets are not intended to leave room for companies to be able to maintain unfair control<\/strong> over their share of the market. The Commission will now have to review the report submitted by Apple on iPadOS and decide whether the company&#8217;s measures are appropriate and in accordance with the DMA. <strong>If not, enforcement proceedings<\/strong> will be initiated, and, as in previous cases, no discounts will be given.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As a &#8220;gatekeeper&#8221; of the digital market in the EU, the American giant has submitted a report regarding the operating system of its tablets and compliance with European rules. The risk is enforcement proceedings and hefty fines<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7877,"featured_media":254025,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"source_name":"","source_url":"","via_name":"","via_url":"","override_template":"0","override":[{"template":"1","single_blog_custom":"","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_share_counter":"0","show_view_counter":"0","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"override_image_size":"0","image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post":"0","trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post":"0","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","sponsored_post_name":"","sponsored_post_url":"","sponsored_post_logo_enable":"0","sponsored_post_logo":"","sponsored_post_desc":"","disable_ad":"0"},"jnews_primary_category":{"id":"","hide":""},"jnews_override_counter":{"override_view_counter":"0","view_counter_number":"0","override_share_counter":"0","share_counter_number":"0","override_like_counter":"0","like_counter_number":"0","override_dislike_counter":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25710],"tags":[27115,28074,27728,27172,27149,27171,26884,26835,27729,29566],"class_list":["post-402201","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-net-tech-en","tag-apple-en-2","tag-commissione-en","tag-digitale-en","tag-digital-en","tag-digital-markets-act-en","tag-dma-en","tag-commissione-ue-en","tag-gatekeeper-and","tag-ipados-en","tag-obligations-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402201","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7877"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=402201"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402201\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":402210,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402201\/revisions\/402210"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/254025"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=402201"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=402201"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=402201"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}