The EU takes a bite out of Apple.

From American Public Media, this is Marketplace Tech.

I'm Megan McCarty Carino.

Apple is reportedly facing a fine from the European Union, and it could be a hefty one.

It's the first big tech company to be slapped with a financial penalty under the EU's New Digital Markets Act, which went into effect last year.

The law is aimed at spurring competition in digital markets and requires big tech

companies designated as gatekeepers to change policies that lock consumers into their products,

like, say, the walled garden of the app store. EU regulators ruled Apple violated the DMA by failing to fully support app developers

steering consumers to alternative marketplaces.

It's a story Matt Binder has been following.

He's a senior tech reporter for Mashable.

Apple has among its very many App Store rules.

One of its rules is this sort of anti-steering rule where basically if you run an app and you,

you know, sell subscriptions or some other in-app purchase, you technically really can't push

those users to purchase that in-app, you know, product or

subscription somewhere else. Like, for example, it's one of the major reasons why actually

Fortnite, the very popular game from Epic Games, is no longer available on the iPhone outside of the EU because Fortnite tried

to send its users on its iPhone users to outside the app store places to purchase. And the

reason they were doing that was they were offering those purchases for cheaper

because they wouldn't have to pay Apple the percentage that they pay Apple for those in-app purchases.

So they're trying to pass off that savings to the consumer as well. And Apple said,

you can't do that. And Epic Games refused to play ball, so Fortnite's not allowed on the app store anymore

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