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An EU flag with the App Store logo
Apple has formally filed an appeal against the European Union’s $570 million fine, arguing that the EU is making demands that go beyond the law, and is continually changing the rules to micro-manage the App Store.
Early in June 2025, Apple filed an appeal against the EU’s mandate that it freely share its technology with rivals, even though no other firm is required to do so. Now it has also entered its appeal specifically against the $570 million fine the EU imposed against the company for alleged non-compliance with the Digital Markets Act (DMA).
In a statement to AppleInsider, Apple says that its appeal concerns what it believes is the EU exceeding its legal authority in dictating the company’s operations. The statement reads:
Today we filed our appeal because we believe the European Commission’s decision— and their unprecedented fine— go far beyond what the law requires. 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. We implemented this to avoid punitive daily fines and will share the facts with the Court.
The daily fines referred to are part of the original ruling against the company. Apple made App Store changes to comply, but should those be deemed inadequate, it would face further daily fines from June 26 onwards — although it later appeared that the EU would delay issuing those.
Previously, both Apple and the EU have claimed to be working together to ensure the company can comply with the DMA. Following the $570 million fine, though, Apple said that in fact the EU had blown off discussions that would have meant the company avoiding the fine.
“We have spent hundreds of thousands of engineering hours and made dozens of changes to comply with this law, none of which our users have asked for,” Apple spokesperson Emma Wilson summarized at the time. “Despite countless meetings, the Commission continues to move the goal posts every step of the way.”
Now in its new appeal, Apple has gone further and complained that having agreed it could charge a fee for the use of its App Store services, the EU then micro-managed issues over the fee, what precisely it covered, and how developers could select elements to pay.
EU demands exceed the law
The company also now says that the EU’s demands over anti-steering have gone further than its DMA specifies. Anti-steering is the practice of preventing developers telling users of alternatives such as special offers or pricing outside of the App Store, and Apple has unquestionably been doing this.
Anti-steering was the sole issue that Apple lost in its otherwise total victory over Epic Games, and it was a US judge who called its subsequent actions “insubordination.” This was following Apple’s changes to anti-steering rules that were arguably so complex that it prevented developers taking advantage of them.
In its new appeal against the EU, Apple though says that under the guise of the DMA, the very definition of anti-steering has been expanded unreasonably. It argues that it now allows developers to link out to their sites, but that the EU subsequently demanded much greater in-app promotions or payment services.
As the appeal has only now been filed, the EU has yet to comment publicly. However, it has previously disputed Apple’s claims that it had ignored proposals from the company that would have meant it avoiding the $570 million fine.
“The Commission made it very clear whenever Apple’s proposals were at the outset falling short of effective compliance and encouraged the company to seek market feedback,” European Commission spokesperson Lea Zuber said in May 2025. “[The fine] only addresses the solution that Apple decided to roll out, not any other hypothetical approach that the company might have been considering.”
