The Spanish competition gendarme announced on Tuesday that it has expanded its open investigation for a year against Apple to possible price scales imposed by the American giant to developers who offer Apple Store applications.
The National Markets and Competition Commission (CNMC) had opened a research procedure against Apple on July 1, 2024 for potential crimes under commercial conditions imposed on developers who use their application platform.
New elements discovered
A year later, this survey “extended”, due to the discovery of new elements that probably “constitute a crime” for European regulations, the organization said in a press release.
According to this press release, the CNMC suspects that Apple “established a price calendar that developers must follow if they wish to offer their applications” in the App Store.
In a reaction transmitted to AFP, Apple defended its commercial policy, ensuring having “designed the app store to offer a safe and reliable experience to users and an excellent commercial opportunity for developers in Spain and worldwide.”
During the opening of the investigation a year ago, the Californian giant had challenged the analysis of the CNMC, ensuring that “Spanish developers of all sizes” competed “on equal terms in the App Store.”
Apple has incorporated its success into an ecosystem closed around the iPhone and iPad, of which it controls all parameters, invoking security imperatives and greater convenience of users, a philosophy in frontal opposition with the European competition rules.
Source: BFM TV
