Apple has been fined over a million dollars by a Paris court because of rules in its App Store the court deemed abusive to developers.
Reuters reports that the Paris Commercial Court handed down the fine on Monday for "imposing abusive commercial clauses on French app developers for access to the company's App Store."
Despite the apparent harmful practices, the court hasn't ordered Apple to change the clause, but there's a very good reason for that. The court noted that the EU's incoming Digital Markets Act will require Apple to make the changes.
App Store abuse
The offending clauses likely pertain to the rules that developers have to follow if they want to distribute their apps on devices like Apple's iPhone 14 and its other best iPhones.
The incoming Digital Markets App will completely change installing apps on your iPhone, with the likely emergence of multiple app stores offered by major players such as Facebook and Instagram owner Meta, as well as Epic Games, Microsoft, and more.
Developers will likely be able to submit their apps to multiple alternative stores, and payments will be handled by platforms other than Apple. While many proponents of the move see the measures as a way to avoid Apple's commission rates, Apple has made it fervently clear it will still collect commission on all digital transactions on its platform regardless of who processes the payment.
The EU's Digital Markets Act is already in force, but companies have until May 2, 2023, to comply with most of its new rules. It is likely Apple will only make these changes in the bloc where it is being forced to by the regulation, rather than rolling out these changes worldwide to customers in the U.S. and beyond.
It emerged last week that Apple was working on allowing third-party app stores on the iPhone, allowing both other app stores and sideloading of apps, which would mean downloading them directly from the web without an app store.
