EU Confirms Apple in Breach of DMA; Target Teams Up with Shopify; Apple and Meta Discuss Partnership

by Aimee Newell Tarín on 25th Jun 2024 in News

On today’s news digest: EU Confirms Apple in Breach of DMA; Target Teams Up with Shopify; Apple and Meta Discuss Partnership

Wrapping up some questions surrounding the European Commission’s (EC) investigation into Apple over anticompetitive practices, Brussels has informed the tech titan that it is in breach of the Digital Markets Act. This marks the first time a company has been found to be in breach of the recently introduced legislation. Sending over its preliminary findings, the EC stated that Apple has failed to allow developers to freely steer their customers, for example by not allowing them to provide pricing information within the app or communicate with their customers to promote offers available on other distribution channels. Additionally, it finds that the fees charged by Apple to remunerate this go beyond what is necessary. The EC has also opened a new case in relation to Apple’s new business terms for iOS.

In the retail space, Target has plans to expand its online marketplace through a new partnership with e-commerce specialist Shopify. In this push for growth, Target’s marketplace will broaden its assortment of merchandise and expand to third-party merchants. Now, vendors using Shopify’s e-commerce platform will be able to apply to sell their products on Target’s marketplace. With this move, Target attempts to close the gap between itself and the biggest players of US e-commerce such as Walmart and Amazon.

Meanwhile, Apple and Meta have had talks about partnering. Reportedly, the social media giant has held discussions with Apple in regard to integrating Meta’s generative AI model into Apple Intelligence – the company’s soon to be launched AI-enhanced offering. With Apple’s huge global distribution, it’s clear why Meta would be keen to take advantage. This will be an interesting space to watch, given both companies’ history as rivals.