Apple appeals $580 million EU fine over App Store restrictions

What just happened? Apple might have a $2.3 trillion market cap, but that doesn't mean the company is happy to pay a $580 million fine without appealing first. The European Commission hit Cupertino with this enormous penalty in April. Now, Apple has launched an appeal, claiming it is "far beyond what the law requires."

The Commission fined Apple 500 million euros and Meta 200 million euros ($23.4 million) earlier this year – the first fines handed out by the agency under its Digital Markets Act (DMA).

Apple broke the DMA's steering rule. This requires gatekeepers – Apple, Meta, Alphabet, Amazon, ByteDance, and Microsoft – to allow business users (like app developers or online sellers) to steer customers to offers or alternative distribution channels outside the gatekeeper's platform, without penalties or restrictions.

Apple overhauled its App Store rules last month to comply with the EU's orders. It folded every EU-only "external payment" carve-out into one entitlement that lets any iOS or iPadOS app point users to, or embed, its own checkout, and it ditched the €0.50-per-install Core Technology Fee. In its place comes a three-part cut: 2% the first time developers sell to a user, 5% or 13% for App Store services depending on how many of Apple's discovery/update features devs keep, and a 5% Core Technology Commission when the purchase happens off-store. The new structure caps Apple's share at about 20% (down from 30%) and the old per-download fee disappears entirely on January 1, 2026.

Apple says it has been forced by the EU to make this structure confusing for developers and consumers to avoid fines.

Apple claims it was being "unfairly targeted" by the EU. It added that the Commission was unlawfully expanding the definition of "steering," shifting the question from whether apps should be allowed link to an outside site to whether they should be allowed advertise offers inside an app.

"Today we filed our appeal because we believe the European Commission's decision – and their unprecedented fine – go far beyond what the law requires," said Apple (via The Guardian), announcing an appeal to the general court, the second highest court in the EU. "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."

President Trump has slammed the EU's antitrust fines on Apple, Meta and other US tech giants as a "novel form of economic extortion" and an attack on American sovereignty. The White House has warned Brussels that such penalties will be treated as trade barriers. Trump authorized a February 2025 memorandum threatening retaliatory tariffs on any country that "hinders American companies' global competitiveness."