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Against the background of global inflation and tight supply chain, apple handed over a brilliant financial report after the closing of US stocks on April 28 this year. But it also faces many challenges, such as the anti-monopoly accusation haunting apple.

According to CCTV Finance on May 3, on the 2nd local time, the EU antitrust regulator officially accused apple of restricting its competitors from using its mobile payment technology, so Apple may face huge fines.

EU issues antitrust charges against Apple pay

The European Commission said on the 2nd that it had issued a written statement to Apple detailing how Apple abused its dominant position in the field of mobile payment through apple pay. The statement said that in recent years, Apple has restricted users from using other payment systems on Apple devices on the grounds of protecting users’ security and privacy, and said that Apple’s anti competitive behavior can be traced back to at least 2015.

The European Commission said there were signs that Apple set up barriers to restrict third-party application developers from acquiring the key technology they need, that is, NFC contactless payment technology when users use Apple pay through apple devices.

According to Reuters, if the accusation is established, Apple will face a huge fine of up to 10% of its global annual turnover, which is estimated to be about US $36.6 billion (about 241.864 billion yuan) according to the turnover data of the previous fiscal year. However, the Reuters report also pointed out that the relevant penalties of the EU had rarely been implemented according to the upper limit punishment standard. Apple said it would continue to contact the European Commission on this issue.

It is reported that the European Parliament, the European Council and the European Commission reached an agreement on the digital market act in March this year, which aims to restrict technology giants such as Google, apple, Amazon and Facebook. If the relevant enterprise violates the digital market act, it will face a fine of up to 10% of its global annual turnover in the previous fiscal year and a fine of up to 20% for repeated violations.

According to the financial Associated Press, citing media reports, for the EU investigation involving Apple pay, apple responded that the company designed Apple pay to provide consumers with safe and convenient contactless payment services using existing bank cards. Apple pay is just one of the many options available to European consumers for payment. While ensuring the equal use of NFC by different types of financial institutions, apple pay sets industry-leading standards for privacy and security.

Apple’s “pointing out” Apple pay at the same time may upset some big European banks. Because the company has access to 2500 banks in Europe, in addition to large financial institutions, many small financial technology companies and Challenger banks can also have equal access to Apple pay.

In addition, the interface News quoted the technology media the verge on March 26 as saying that for the digital market act (DMA), which reached a temporary agreement with the European Union, apple said that the provisions of the act may bring unnecessary privacy and security vulnerabilities to users. In addition, Apple also said that some terms would make it impossible for apple to charge for intellectual property rights.

Apple CEO Tim Cook criticized the digital market law earlier this month, saying the policy would enable “data seeking” companies to bypass Apple’s privacy rules to track users.

In addition, according to interface news aid Reuters, Margrethe vestager, director of the EU antitrust bureau, responded at a news conference that so far, the investigation has found no evidence of such a high security risk. “On the contrary, the evidence in our documents shows that Apple’s behavior cannot be justified by security issues.”

Apple can request a closed door hearing to defend the case and can also send a written reply before the committee makes a decision, which may take a year or more.

For example, the European Union punished apple for paying 13 billion euros in taxes in 2016. The relevant lawsuit has not ended yet. In the process, apple even obtained a favorable ruling from the European Court of justice.

Like American Internet giants such as Google, the EU’s antitrust investigation of apple is not only one. In addition to Apple pay, the EU also accused Apple Music of abusing its dominant market position to hinder competition last year. At the same time, Apple has also been reviewed by global regulators because of the “Apple tax” - for a long time, when users buy applications in the app store, Apple has to charge 30% of the Commission.

Apple’s Q2 revenue increased by 9%, and its mobile phone business grew brightly

On April 28 local time, Apple released the results of the second quarter of fiscal year 2022 as of the end of March. It can be seen that even under the reality of prominent supply chain challenges, apple still handed over a financial report that exceeded market expectations - both in terms of revenue and the market performance of iPhone and Mac.

Data show that Apple’s Q2 total net revenue was US $97.278 billion, a year-on-year increase of 9%; The net profit was US $25.010 billion, a year-on-year increase of 6%. Apple’s revenue in Greater China in the second quarter was $18.343 billion, up 3.5% from $17.728 billion in the same period last year.

The fiscal quarter with revenue of $97.3 billion was the third best quarter in Apple’s history, but it was also one of the slowest quarters since the COVID-19 began more than two years ago. Since the launch of the first iPhone with 5g function in October 2020, Apple has achieved double-digit year-on-year growth every quarter.

According to the financial report, iPhone, which contributed more than half of Apple’s revenue, had a revenue of $50.57 billion, a year-on-year increase of 5.5%. This means that at a time when the growth of smartphone sales slows down, iPhone is still the highlight of Apple’s revenue.

Apple CEO Cook said the iPhone business was successful last quarter because there were more “switchers”, that is, users who previously used Android phones and now decide to buy iPhones. He revealed: “the number of upgrades we made in the second quarter reached record level