Why app developers think the EU’s first ever Apple fine is ‘a joke’

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Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.

Good morning. You’re receiving the newsletter from me this week as Henry is away.

Today, our tech expert explains why app developers think the EU’s first ever fine of Apple won’t be nearly enough. And my colleague in Berlin reports on the crackdown on cold war era far-left militants who have been on the run for three decades.

Slap on the wrist

The European Commission is set to slap Apple with a fine of around €500mn for the first time ever, but the tech giant’s rivals say the amount is far too low, and even a much bigger fine wouldn’t impact Apple’s business, writes Javier Espinoza.

Context: The EU will fine Apple for allegedly breaking the bloc’s competition rules in a long-running case that dates back to a complaint by music streaming app Spotify in 2019.

The commission is expected to announce the fine in the region of €500mn at the beginning of this week, though some industry players believe it could be higher.

Still, app developers and competitors of Apple think the amount is “a joke”. “Even if it was a few billion euros, it would still be laughable,” said an adviser to a large tech company.

Apple is not the only company to have been fined in recent years. Google has accumulated fines of around €8bn in multiple antitrust cases. The online search giant is still fighting these in court, and some argue that they have not helped in making markets fairer.

Damien Geradin at the Coalition for App Fairness, which also includes Spotify, said: “The fine is largely immaterial for Apple given its size and profitability, and the possibility that it may be annulled/decreased on appeal.”

Others agree the penalty against Apple is likely ineffective. Andy Yen, chief executive at email service Proton, said: “I don’t think a company like Apple cares [about the fine]. It’s a slap on the wrist.”

Geradin however added that the case was still a “loss” for Apple at a time when it was embroiled in difficult negotiations with the EU over implementing the bloc’s landmark new tech rules, the Digital Markets Act. “Regulators are running short of patience with Apple,” Geradin said.

In addition to the fine, the EU is also set to force Apple to stop its anti-competitive behaviour when it comes to banning apps from advertising their services outside of the App Store.

When asked about critics calling the fine nothing more than a “parking ticket” for Apple, the bloc’s competition chief, Margrethe Vestager, cryptically said: “I think that it depends on the size of the car.”

Apple declined to comment.

Chart du jour: Power grab

French far-right leader Marine Le Pen kicked off her EU election campaign yesterday by vowing to wrest back powers from an “intrusive and authoritarian” bureaucracy in Brussels.

Blast from the past

Over 130 armed police swooped on a house in Berlin just after dawn yesterday morning, firing shots and detaining several people in connection with the search of wanted far-left militants, writes Sam Jones.

The raid is the latest twist in an unfolding drama around a cold war relic that Germans had thought long confined to the history books: the Red Army Faction (RAF), more commonly known as the Baader-Meinhof Gang, after its founders.

Context: For almost three decades, until it was disbanded in 1998, the radical anti-capitalist group was responsible for a string of high-profile murders and acts of political violence. Among its 34 victims were the chairmen of Deutsche Bank and Dresdner Bank, West Germany’s federal prosecutor, senior diplomats, soldiers and politicians. A 1979 attack nearly succeeded in killing Nato’s supreme commander. Hundreds were wounded in its bombings.

Last week, the RAF entered the headlines once more, as police announced they had arrested Daniela Klette, a 65-year-old former member of the group who is a suspect wanted in connection with its final act of terror: the 1993 bombing of a prison in the town of Weiterstadt.

Klette was arrested in Kreuzberg, in Berlin, where she had been living as Claudia Ivone.

Last year, journalists found a picture of Klette on the website of a Brazilian dance club in the city, leading to a renewed public appeal for information on her whereabouts. Last month, prosecutors received a crucial tipoff.

At her apartment, following her arrest, police found a cache of weaponry, including a submachine gun and a grenade launcher.

Another lead prompted yesterday’s raid in Berlin’s gritty Friedrichshain district, with police searching for Ernst-Volker Staub and Burkhard Garweg — Klette’s two alleged accomplices in the Weiterstadt bombing.

But the two men were not among the detained, and remain at large.

What to watch today

1. EU justice ministers meet in Brussels.

2. EU energy ministers meet.

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