Syed Imran Haider 
Margrethe Vestager, the competition chief of the European Union, said that there are several ‘serious issues’ associated with Apple Inc. under the new rules introduced.
The bloc implemented the Digital Markets Act (DMA) legislation, which is aimed at controlling Big Tech companies.
The investigation
There had recently been reports that EU regulators are planning on filing a lawsuit against Apple Inc. An investigation had also been launched by the EU’s executive arm in March into several companies.
The European Commission was investigating Meta, Alphabet and Apple under the new law that went into effect this year.
There were a number of concerns associated with the iPhone maker. This included whether the company was preventing businesses from informing their clients about subscriptions other than the App Store.
Likewise, there were also claims that the tech giant did not allow businesses to inform their users about cheaper product options.
Vestager said that they believe there are very serious issues with Apple. She added that they were surprised to have suspicions about the company’s non-compliance.
She added that they hoped to reveal the results of the investigation very soon.
The company
She added that the tech firm was an important one because the App Store generates a lot of business. Similarly, payment mechanisms are also widely used.
Therefore, she said that they had not expected this from a company like Apple. Nonetheless, they would take the same actions they would have with any other company.
Last week, it had been reported that Apple would be charged in Brussels due to the probe under the new act.
The report had further said that they would be preliminary charges and the iPhone maker could take actions for assuaging the concerns put forth by regulators.
If Apple is found guilty of breaching rules under the DMA Act, it would have to pay fines. These could be 10% of the total global annual turnover of the firm.
Competition chief
Vestager has been the Competition Commissioner of the EU for 10 years. Her priority has been to rein the power of big technology firms to level the playing field in the bloc.
She has led some of the biggest investigations into tech companies like Alphabet. Fines worth billions of dollars have also been imposed on numerous companies.
While she is preparing to leave office, there are still several investigations taking place. This includes one aimed at Microsoft.
The software giant is under investigation for bundling its chat and video app Teams with other Office products.
The competition chief also talked about the end of her tenure and said that she planned to rest. Vestager said that she had been hyper-charged for a decade.
Thus, she was planning on sleeping for a month and was looking forward to begin a new chapter.
