App stores

App stores, Apple, Designation Decision, Digital, Digital competition, Digital economy, Digital markets, Digital Markets Act, European Commission

(University Carlos III of Madrid, Spain)/ /Leave a comment

The Digital Markets Act (DMA) became entirely applicable on 7 March 2024. By then, the gatekeepers issued their compliance reports documenting their technical solutions and implementation of the DMA’s provisions under Article 11 DMA as well as their reports on consumer profiling techniques as required under Article 15 DMA (see here). During the following week,…

App stores, Apple, Digital competition, Digital economy, Digital markets, Digital Markets Act, European Commission, Fines, Proportionality, Unfair trading practices

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After almost three years since the Commission sent Apple its statement of objections, which was significantly trimmed down, the Commission reached a finding of abuse for which it imposed a whopping fine of 1.8 billion euros. Alongside this case, Apple was also involved in an almost identical case running parallel in the Netherlands, with similar…

Amazon, App stores, Apple, Apps, Digital competition, Digital economy, Digital markets, Digital Markets Act, Europe, European Commission, Ex ante regulation, Facebook, Google

(University Carlos III of Madrid, Spain)/ /Leave a comment

The Digital Markets Act (DMA) is now applicable. Following the 6-month interim period where gatekeepers had the opportunity to adapt their business models to the regulation, the DMA now requires them to prove their effective compliance with its provisions. To do that, on 7 March 2024, the six designated gatekeepers in September (see here) presented…

Abuse of dominance, App stores, Apple, National competition authorities (NCAs), National court, Netherlands

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The Dutch case concerning the Apple App Store appears to make a (welcome) comeback. The case that started in 2019 came to a rather disappointing end in the summer of 2022 when the Dutch competition authority issued a public statement that gave the impression that it was satisfied with Apple’s adjustments to the App Store…

Abuse of dominance, Advantage, Advertising, App stores, Apple, Digital economy, Digital markets, Digital Markets Act, Digital Services Act, European Commission, European Union, Ex ante regulation, Facebook

(University Carlos III of Madrid, Spain)/ /Leave a comment

The wheels of the DMA have started turning and so have the International Law Talk episodes. I had the pleasure to interview Assimakis Komninos following the Commission’s press release establishing the economic operators that it had designated as gatekeepers under the DMA. This triggering event gave us the excuse to talk about a range of…

App stores, Apple, Digital competition, Digital economy, Digital markets, Digital Markets Act, European Commission, Margin squeeze, Statement of Objections

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In competition policy circles around the world, app stores remain a major topic of discussion regarding the regulation of digital markets. On February 28th, 2023, the European Commission (EC) sent a new Statement of Objections (SO) to Apple, “clarifying its concerns over App Store rules for music streaming providers”. This replaced the original SO, which…

App stores, Apple, Digital Markets Act, European Commission, Fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory (FRAND)

(University Carlos III of Madrid, Spain)/ /Leave a comment

The DMA will start to apply in March 2024. The European Commission (EC) has acquired the compromise to make the process of the DMA’s future implementation, monitoring and oversight of compliance as transparent as possible. After the first two stakeholders’ workshops on the ban on self-preferencing and interoperability relating to messaging services, on the 6th of…