Ahead of the European Union’s DMA implementation deadline tomorros, Cafeyn and many EU companies and associations, including Spotify, Deezer and France Digitale, sent the following letter to the European Commission today raising concerns about Apple’s lack of compliance.
Mrs Margrethe Vestager
Executive Vice-President - A Europe Fit for the Digital Age European Commission
Rue de la Loi 200
1049 Brussels
Belgium
Mr Thierry Breton
Commissioner for Internal Market European Commission
Rue de la Loi 200
1049 Brussels
Belgium
1 March 2024
Subject: Apple’s proposed scheme for DMA compliance - strong concerns from businesses
Dear Executive Vice-President, dear Commissioner,
We are 34 companies and associations operating across a wide range of digital sectors, including aviation, publishing/press, gaming, commercial radios, audio streaming, applications software, communications, marketing, payment, fintech, crypto and marketplaces. Together, we represent tens of thousands of businesses of all sizes and we serve hundreds of millions of customers across Europe.
We are very concerned that Apple’s proposed scheme for compliance with the Digital Markets Act (DMA), as communicated on 25 January 2024, will not meet the law’s requirements therefore inhibiting our ability to deliver the benefits of the DMA to consumers as soon as possible.
Apple’s new terms not only disregard both the spirit and letter of the law, but if left unchanged, make a mockery of the DMA and the considerable efforts by the European Commission and EU institutions to make digital markets competitive.
There are a myriad of elements in Apple’s announcement that do not comply with the DMA. We take this opportunity to highlight some of the most obvious and egregious:
The European Commission’s response to Apple’s proposal will serve as a litmus test of the DMA and whether it can deliver for Europe’s citizens and economy.
In the absence of materially different proposals from Apple, we urge the European Commission to take swift, timely and decisive action against Apple, to protect developers and benefit consumers and do so as soon as the DMA obligations apply. This is the only way to guarantee the DMA remains both credible and delivers competitive digital markets.
Yours sincerely,
The Signatories
EU Companies
Adevinta
Beonex
Blockchain.com
Cafeyn
Deezer
Epic Games
iconomy
Mustang
Paddle
Parula
Proton
Schibsted
37signals
SkyDemon
Spotify
Threema
Uptodown
Vipps MobilePay
EU Associations
Alliance Digitale
Association Européenne des Radios (AER)
Classifieds Marketplaces Europe (CME)
Digital Content Next (DCN)
Digital Music Europe (DME)
European DIGITAL SME Alliance
European Games Developer Federation (EGDF)
European Fintech Association (EFA)
European Magazine Media Association (EMMA)
European Newspaper Publishers’ Association (ENPA)
European Publishers Council (EPC)
France Digitale
Internet Economy Foundation (IEF)
News Media Europe (NME)
Sveriges Tidskrifter
Tidningsutgivarna
Contact presse
Julia Aymé / j.ayme@cafeyn.co - +33699692704