Apple Fights $580 Million App Store Fine in Europe

Apple has appealed what it calls an “unlawful” $580 million fine from the European Union.

“We believe the European Commission’s decision — and their unprecedented fine — go far beyond what the law requires,” the tech giant said in a statement on Monday, per a report by Bloomberg News.

“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.”

The European Commission (EC) announced the fine in April, saying Apple had violated Europe’s Digital Markets Act (DMA). Those rules require companies to let developers to steer users to make purchases outside of app stores like Apple’s.

The EC also issued a $234 million fine to Meta at the same time, saying that the company violated the DMA’s obligation to allow consumers to choose a service that uses less of their personal data but is otherwise equivalent to the “personalized ads” service.

Meta countered that the commission is trying to hamstring American businesses while allowing Chinese and European firms to operate under different rules.

Last month, Apple updated its EU App Store policies to address local requirements and skirt further penalties. Those updates include a tiered commission structure of either 5% or 13% — in addition to a 2% user acquisition fee — depending on whether developers want their apps to show up in App Store search suggestions and promotional material or have the ability to get automatic updates.

Apple’s app store has been the source of legal headaches for the company throughout the world. Earlier this year, a federal judge in California ruled that the company must permit U.S. developers to steer users off-site to make in-app-purchase transactions, something Apple says put billions of annual revenue at risk.

Elsewhere in Europe, a German data protection authority regulator last month told Apple and Google that the DeepSeek artificial intelligence-powered chatbot app is “illegal content” and that the companies must decide whether to keep the app off their app stores.

Meike Kamp, the Berlin Data Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information, said she did so because the app illegally transfers users’ personal data to China.

Kamp contacted the companies after DeepSeek failed to comply with a request to either remove its app from German app stores, cease illegally transferring data to China, or meet the legal requirements for lawful third-country transfers.