They aren't? That's strange, because the EU seems to say otherwise. Have you taken the time to actually read about the fines and threats of them? You might want to do a quick read if you really want to go with the condescending attitude, because the EU, in their own words, keeps threatening to fine based on percentages of "worldwide revenue". Worldwide revenue...straight from the horses mouth. Otherwise, if that's the attitude you want to take...make sure your facts line up, because the EU's own words don't line up with your claim that the fines aren't based on that.
I am against the EU using global revenues as the base of comparison to establish fines. My own opinion is that deterrents regarding concerns with local activities should always be based on local revenues. Trying to paint the fine as small by using revenues achieved outside of the region instead of local is not a good practice. Case in case my guess is that it is less than 2% if EU based revenues were instead quoted.
Apple revenue in the EU in 2023 was around 94b ... around 25% of Apple global revenue. Just a note out of curiosity, the USA alone accounts for 35%, only 10% more than the EU. So everyone here advising Apple to leave the EU based on whatever the company does not agree regarding local regulations .... should probably shut up as clearly have no idea what such a move would mean to the stock they own not to mention the company credibility world wide.
Apple in my view is playing a reckless ideological game towards a totalitarian future over peoples properties and access to content and digital services subordinate to the company interests, all for minor financial gains. Paving the way for companies to pursue the same business practices. Tim Cook says it's concerned with policies rather than politics ... but the fact is that there is clearly a ideological agenda here concerning the future of digital governance that is far from liberal. Some would say, a quite despotic view.
Fines aren't the solution for anything. They are meant to be deterrents of non compliant practices. The solution is compliance that is it.
Companies fighting against compliance is never a good practice to increase revenue and profits ... never is anywhere in the world!!
1. What is as stake for regulators is actually the maintenance of a cross platform open market in the EU region, similar to the free trade of goods and services across its member states, regardless if digital or physical, built on top of its open economic platform and technological infrastructure, in particular its Open Internet & Communication Infrastructure that was also regulated for such a purpose. That is all there is to it.
2. On not top of this open infrastructure more than one 1/3 of mobile devices connected to the EU open infrastructure are iOS devices, iPhone and iPads. Meaning more than 1/3 of devices used by people, either they have to use a mandatory closed business system controlled by a single private entity in order to access the European digital economy or the included Web Browser controlled by the same private entity.
Get 1 and 2 together and a DMA, with Gatekeeping platforms in mind, a group where iOS Platform is included, was bound to happen. Unless people are distracted with "partisan" company politics or naïve and abstract ultra liberal idealisms that never worked per si in terms of justice and fairness, not even in the USA, it does not take much brains to figure this conclusion out.
