34 organizations say Apple is making fun of new EU regulations on digital services

Among the signatories of a letter addressed to the European Commission are the music streaming services Deezer and Spotify and the France digitale start-up association.

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New rules governing digital service providers in the EU will come into force on March 7, 2024. (JONATHAN RAA / NURPHOTO / AFP)

A group of 34 companies or professional associations denounced in a letter dated March 1 to the European Commission the measures announced by Apple to comply from Thursday with new reinforced competition rules in the European Union (EU). Among the signatories are the music streaming services Deezer and Spotify, the France digitale start-up association, the European Fintech association EFA (financial technologies) and the European Newspaper Publishers Association ENPA.

Apple, as well as five other digital giants – Alphabet (Google), Amazon, Meta (Facebook, Instagram), Microsoft and ByteDance (TikTok) – have until March 7 to comply with the DMA. This new regulation intends to put an end to the abuse of dominant position of which they are accused, and imposes on them a series of obligations and prohibitions, under penalty of very heavy fines.

Openly hostile to the DMA, Apple announced on January 25 several modifications to its iOS operating system, which equips its famous iPhone phones. The Apple brand claims, for example, that it will authorize application stores competing with its App Store and that it will open up to other contactless payment services than its Apple Pay solution, as it is there constraint. “Apple’s new terms not only ignore the spirit and letter of the law, but if left unchanged, they make a mockery of the DMA”however, estimate the 34 organizations in their missive.


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