Brazil Recommends Sanctions for Apple Over App Store Rules

Apple is facing renewed antitrust scrutiny in Brazil, where the country's competition regulator has formally recommended sanctions against the company over its App Store rules.

Apple Tap to Pay iPhone
The recommendation was issued by the General Superintendence of Brazil's Administrative Council for Economic Defense (SG/CADE), the technical body of the federal antitrust authority. In a public statement translated from Portuguese, SG/CADE determined that Apple's conduct with iOS constitutes a violation of Brazilian competition law and urged CADE's internal tribunal to impose penalties, including financial fines and mandatory changes to Apple's policies.

The investigation started in 2022 after formal complaints were submitted by Latin American e-commerce platform MercadoLibre and other digital service providers. The companies alleged that Apple engaged in anti-competitive practices by requiring in-app purchases to be made exclusively through its own payment system and by restricting developers from informing users about alternative purchasing options — a practice known as anti-steering. In a statement to the Brazilian technology publication Tecnoblog, Apple said:

For more than 16 years, the App Store has provided our users in Brazil with a safe and trusted marketplace to discover new apps and has helped Brazilian developers build successful businesses. We are concerned that CADE's proposed measures would harm the experience our users love and trust, while also introducing new risks to their privacy and security. We will continue to engage with CADE to defend the rights of users and developers on our platform.

According to Reuters, CADE's technical body has now concluded that Apple's enforcement of these restrictions creates artificial barriers to entry for competitors and harms both developers and consumers. In its ruling, CADE wrote that Apple's practices "artificially preserve its dominant position" in iOS-related markets and reduce the availability of competing digital payment solutions. CADE's internal tribunal must now decide whether to accept the recommendation and proceed with formal sanctions.

Note: Due to the political or social nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Political News forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Tag: Brazil

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Top Rated Comments

RemedyRabbit Avatar
12 weeks ago
Lets face it the writing is on the wall for the locked App Store. Apple should do themselves a favour and try to get ahead of it by opening the platform up, much better to take ownership of it on their own terms than have it forced upon them.

TBH I can’t wait, it’ll be great for innovation to go back to a time whereby people can install whatever the hell the like on their devices. I want to be able to use my iphone like I use my mbp.

Everything in tech has become way too locked down and corporate, I miss the early days of the internet before big tech dominance. That’s not coming back any time soon, but this sort of thing is a step in the right direction.
Score: 24 Votes (Like | Disagree)
turbineseaplane Avatar
12 weeks ago
Uh oh ... another Country that's "wrong", but Apple is "right".

Soon they may have to pull out of doing business on Earth.
Score: 24 Votes (Like | Disagree)
turbineseaplane Avatar
12 weeks ago

I don't even care if the App Store is default. Just me let take an .ipa and do with it as I wish.
I still don't understand why this isn't a widely supported position.

Make it like the Mac already is, basically.
Score: 17 Votes (Like | Disagree)
WarmWinterHat Avatar
12 weeks ago

You miss the days before the iPhone. When carriers ran the app stores and charged devs up to 70% meaning a severely crippled version of “Office” could cost $99. On a phone. OK!
I'd prefer no store, and just download/install apps directly. I don't need nor want a middleman, Apple, the carriers, or otherwise.

I don't even care if the App Store is default. Just me let take an .ipa and do with it as I wish.

...then, maybe, I can get Firefox with plugin support.
Score: 15 Votes (Like | Disagree)
klasma Avatar
12 weeks ago

You miss the days before the iPhone. When carriers ran the app stores and charged devs up to 70% meaning a severely crippled version of “Office” could cost $99. On a phone. OK!
I miss the days when phones weren’t the majority computing platform. And I had a Palm device that didn’t have an app store and just allowed normal installation of programs.
Score: 12 Votes (Like | Disagree)
ifxf Avatar
12 weeks ago

I agree with open NFC access, but not open App Store access and side loading. Open NFC spurs competition. Open App Store invites malware and is a security and privacy risk.
I don’t need a nanny protecting me, I can make my our decisions on what to load. I recently downloaded loaded an updated version of a game and it is now loaded with ads, would love to go back to the previous version.
Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)