The European Union (EU) is currently updating its Digital Services Act, which may prompt Apple and other tech giants to make some modifications on how they promote their apps.
Reports say that the EU is now in the process of finalizing the modified and updated Digital Services Act. When ratified, the new set of rules may force Apple, along with other tech giants, to change the way they promote their apps on their own platforms.
New EU rules may change how Apple promotes own apps in App Store pic.twitter.com/N7iFJ4VQkU — HamacaSoft (@hamacasoft) December 7, 2020
According to industry observers, the EU is making this move to open the market for more competition, thereby creating a healthy and vibrant economic activity that will benefit consumers in the end. The EU competition head recently hinted at such rule changes that the commission might reveal before 2020 ends. Sources say that the new set of rules could force Apple and other tech firms to change how they promote their apps on platforms they control.
The Digital Services Act is a collection of rules that dictate how to govern and protect online platforms like Apple's App Store. As part of the EU's reformation efforts, which might include modifications on how to handle digital content, there may also be new rules that state how platform owners should present services that they operate. This means that Apple and other tech firms may have to make some modifications to how they do app promotions on their own platforms.
In an interview with CNBC on Friday, Margrethe Vestager, the European Commissioner for Competition said that rule changes include provisions that concern self-preferencing. "With power, with strength comes responsibility and part of that is, for instance, that you don't promote yourself when your services (are) in competition with other services," Vestager said. In effect, such rule changes would force Apple and other tech giants to change how they promote their apps on platforms they control. For the part of Apple, the company said that the new rules limit how they promote their own apps and services through platforms like the App Store. For instance, the Cupertino tech giant may not actively promote Apple Music as a service that it also offers ahead of competitors like Spotify.
Vestager said that their move to introduce modifications in the Digital Services Act has nothing to do with the size of platforms or the companies that own them. She said that their intention is to promote fair competition, adding that Apple and other tech companies would now have to introduce some changes on how they promote their apps on their own platforms. "That is the point, that if you have grown into this size that you actually do exercise control on yourself and that you enable other people to their business in a way that is fair and square," EU's competition chief said.
