The European Union is reportedly set to announce that Apple won’t be fined for failing to comply with an antitrust law relating to choice of iPhone web browser. The maximum fine could have been as high as 10% of the company’s global revenue.
Apple initially made one change to iOS to allow users to set a different default browser, but the EU had ruled that this was not enough to make it compliant with the law …
Web browser choice
Originally, the iPhone came with Safari as the default web browser, and you couldn’t change this. You could install a competing browser like Chrome, but if you tapped on a link in an email, for example, it would open in Safari.
Additionally, Apple insisted that all competing browsers use WebKit, meaning that it wasn’t possible for them to offer features not available in Safari, or to provide faster performance.
EU antitrust law required Apple to make changes to enable fair competition, and Apple then allowed users to manually select a different default browser. However, Safari remained the default for anyone who didn’t do this, and the EU therefore ruled that Apple’s own browser still had an unfair advantage.
In January of last year, Apple announced it would fix this in two ways. First, iPhone users in the EU would be asked to choose their default web browser when first setting up their iPhone, with Safari just one option in a randomly-ordered list. Second, competing browsers would be allowed to use their own web engines.
Apple won’t be fined
The changes made by Apple seemed to bring the company into full compliance with the law, and it appears this is about to be confirmed. Reuters reports that the investigation is set to be closed next week, with no action taken against the company.
Apple is set to stave off a possible fine and an EU order over its browser options on iPhones after it made changes to comply with landmark EU rules aimed at reining in Big Tech, people with direct knowledge of the matter said on Tuesday.
The European Commission, which launched an investigation in March last year under the Digital Markets Act (DMA), is expected to close its investigation early next week, the people said.
While that would resolve one antitrust issue for the company, Apple remains under investigation for anti-steering rules, limiting the ability of developers to link to external payment methods. A decision on this case is also expected soon.
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