The European Commission is reportedly likely to accept Apple’s changes to its App Store rules and fees, eliminating the threat of daily fines from the antitrust regulator.
The timing of an announcement of official approval of the changes is uncertain, but could come within weeks, Reuters reported Tuesday (July 22), citing unnamed sources.
Asked about the report by Reuters, the European Commission said, per the report: “All options remain on the table. We are still assessing Apple’s proposed changes.”
Apple did not comment in the Reuters article and did not immediately reply to PYMNTS’ request for comment.
The company’s changes came in response to a European Commission ruling in April that found that Apple violated the European Union’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) by preventing app developers from promoting cheaper deals outside of its App Store, according to the report.
With that ruling, the European Commission fined Apple 500 million euros (about $587 million) and gave the company 60 days to modify its policies to comply with the DMA, per the report.
Apple said in June that it would make changes so that developers will pay a 20% processing fee for purchases made in the App Store, will pay a 5% to 15% fee when sending customers outside the App Store to make a payment, and will be able to provide links that send users to other forms of payment, according to the report.
If the company’s changes were not accepted by the European Commission, the commission could have imposed daily fines equal to 5% of its average daily worldwide revenue, per the report.
When the fine was announced in April, Apple told CNBC: “Today’s announcements are yet another example of the European Commission unfairly targeting Apple in a series of decisions that are bad for the privacy and security of our users, bad for products, and force us to give away our technology for free.”
It was reported July 7 that Apple appealed the fine, calling it “unlawful.”
“We believe the European Commission’s decision — and their unprecedented fine — go far beyond what the law requires,” the company told Bloomberg News at the time. “As our appeal will show, the EC is mandating how we run our store and forcing business terms which are confusing for developers and bad for users.”