Apple was fined 1 million euros by the Paris Commercial Court on Monday for imposing unbalanced conditions on mobile app developers, and will have to change its practices to comply with new European regulations.
The American giant (90 billion dollars in revenue from July to September) was the subject of a complaint filed in 2017 on behalf of the Minister of Economy and Finance Bruno Le Maire, and revealed by him the following year, at the when Donald Trump's United States wanted to tax steel and aluminum imports.
Bercy accused Apple and Google, which dominate the global mobile application ecosystem, of "
imposing tariffs
" on French start-ups wishing to sell their applications on their platforms, of recovering their data and of being able to "
unilaterally modify contracts
" .
.
According to the judgment of which AFP was aware, the commercial court upheld the "
significant imbalance
" and " significant
legal and economic insecurity
" arising in particular from the impossibility for the developers to renegotiate the terms of the contract with Apple or to challenge the suspension of an application.
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On the other hand, he dismissed 5 complaints out of 11, in particular on the exclusivity of the payment system or on the commission rate (30%), "
obviously not excessive and (which) is found very frequently in the trade whether it is online or physical
.
The court also did not ask for changes to certain disputed clauses and referred to the European regulations on digital markets (DMA) voted in October, which "
now imposes, everywhere in Europe, on Apple a rebalancing of the clauses in favor developers
”.
"
Apple believes in dynamic, competitive markets where innovation can flourish.
(…) We will examine this decision carefully and continue our efforts to support developers and provide a safe experience for users
,” Apple reacted in a statement to AFP on Monday.
Google was sentenced in March to a fine of two million euros, and to modify seven clauses of its application distribution contract.
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Under pressure to justify commissions they impose on developers around the world, the two American giants, publishers of operating systems for Android and iOS mobiles, have cut their commission for small developers and subscriptions in half and authorized more flexibility in pricing applications.
Enforcing DMA could also force Apple to allow the use of an alternative app store to the App Store and third-party payment systems within apps.
