For Apple, the EU is a bottomless pit – POLITICO

Now it sells services and takes a cut of the services offered by other developers who sell their apps on the Apple store. Apple says it guarantees the security and functionality of those apps; some developers call the fee an unfair “Apple tax” that they want regulators and courts to clamp down on.

The EU is one of several enforcement bodies that have investigated how Apple sets rules for app developers who sell on its platform, but it has gone further in banning some practices through the DMA.

Apple lobbied hard and unsuccessfully against a DMA provision that banned side-loading, the practice of adding a new app store to a device to allow customers to install software that wasn’t available in Apple’s store. It argued that it would make iPhones less secure because it would make it easier for cybercriminals to sneak their programs onto the phones.

Under pressure

The company has nonetheless taken steps to comply with the new EU rules, rolling out a compliance plan earlier this year, responding to criticism in March by explaining that its engineers were “essentially forced to draw on a blank slate” when creating new business terms.

Ongoing criticism from developers that Apple has not gone far enough has prompted the company to make several changes to its policies in recent months.

“They are definitely under pressure, otherwise they wouldn’t be making these changes,” said Francisco Jeronimo, vice president of devices for Europe, the Middle East and Africa at market research firm IDC.