Apple allows apps to be downloaded on iPhone and across the web to avoid EU control – Apple

Apple will finally allow users of its devices to download apps directly over the web for the first time as well Attempts to harmonize with the EU legislative frameworkwhich aims to regulate the behavior of technology companies that maintain a dominant position in the market.

As part of these changes, Apple will allow app creators to offer discounts to users outside of the App Store environment, while also allowing alternative marketplaces to offer their own apps.

The company said in a post that most of these changes will be implemented immediately, with the exception of Apple's proposal to allow app creators to distribute them via other websites, a feature that will be activated in the spring. On her official blog.

The moves are part of Apple's efforts to comply with the European Union's Digital Marketing Act (DMA), which recently came into force. The law targets platforms such as Alphabet Inc. Google Search, Apple's App Store, Amazon, and Facebook's Meta in an effort to improve competition. These companies must adhere to a series of rules or face heavy fines of up to 10% of the company's annual global revenue, or up to 20% for those found guilty.

Earlier, Apple attempted through various steps to comply with the terms of the new legal framework, and as a result was once again targeted by both its competitors and European regulatory authorities. Last week, for example, the company announced that it would reinstate Epic's account, allowing the company that created Fortnite to create its own app market in the EU, which would compete with Apple's proposal. The change of course came a day after Brussels demanded an explanation from Apple for its decision to ban Epic, leaving open the possibility of further fines against the tech giant. Meanwhile, Apple was this month fined €1.8 billion by the European Union after it emerged that it had blocked rival music streaming companies from offering users cheaper offers. Apple has already begun the process of appealing the decision, arguing that regulators failed to highlight any “convincing evidence that consumers were harmed.”

Apple has also taken other steps to bring the App Store in line with the legal framework now in place in the European Union, including changes to the fees it charges app creators. The company reduced the commission it charged from 30% to 17%. But at the same time, it charges a 3% commission for the cost of processing applications that use Apple's shopping system, in addition to a commission of fifty euro cents for each installed application, in cases where the program was downloaded more than a million times during a period of twelve months.

Margit Vestager, the EU representative on competition matters, said last week that “the DMA framework is quite specific, among other things, in terms of having a liberal structure that practically allows people to take advantage of these new benefits.”

Apple, along with Meta and TikTok, is trying to get rid of the description of a “gatekeeper”, that is, a company with a completely dominant position in the market, as it has filed an appeal in European courts.

ByteDance, owner of TikTok, last month failed to secure a judicial stay on the EU decision pending its appeal, a development that forced the video-sharing platform to comply with the new regulatory framework.