The DMA Standoff: Apple Slams EU “Delay Tactics” as Setapp Mobile Collapses

The protracted legal skirmish between the Digital Markets Act (DMA) and American tech giants remains intensely volatile in 2026. Following the recent announcement that the renowned third-party application repository, Setapp Mobile, would terminate its iOS operations, the underlying friction between Apple and the European Commission has once again ignited into a public confrontation.

In a rare and scathing rebuke, Apple issued a statement accusing European regulators of employing “political delay tactics.” The tech sovereign alleged that regulators are deliberately ignoring proposed compliance frameworks in a persistent effort to “move the goalposts,” thereby engineering a pretext to levy exorbitant punitive fines. The catalyst for this latest escalation was the operational cessation of Setapp’s iOS venture, a subsidiary of the developer MacPaw. The firm asserted that Apple’s commercial terms remain “in a state of flux and are prohibitively convoluted,” rendering them incompatible with Setapp’s current business model.

Conversely, the European Commission attributed Setapp’s failure to Apple’s intransigence, contending that the corporation failed to alleviate the complexity of its commercial stipulations. Apple, however, vehemently disputes this narrative. In a communique addressed to Bloomberg, Apple posited: “The European Commission has obstructed the very modifications they themselves mandated.” The firm emphasized that it submitted a formal compliance strategy as early as October of the previous year, yet the Commission has preserved a stony silence. Consequently, Apple views this inertia as a deliberate stratagem intended to mislead the public and justify arduous investigations and subsequent financial penalties.

Reflecting on this ongoing conflict since the DMA’s inception, although Apple has technically permitted third-party app stores on its ecosystem, it has erected formidable barriers. Chief among these is the contentious “Core Technology Fee” (CTF), which mandates that developers remit €0.50 for every initial annual installation after exceeding one million downloads—a levy Apple justifies as essential for platform maintenance.

In April of last year, the EU penalized Apple for restricting alternative payment modalities. By June, Apple proposed a revised model christened the “Core Technology Commission” (CTC), which would operate on a 5% revenue-sharing basis. Apple contends that because the EU has deferred the approval of this new system, developers like Setapp Mobile remain ensnared in obsolete, labyrinthine terms, leaving them with no recourse but to exit the market. To these accusations, an EU spokesperson offered a formal rebuttal, stating that “continuous dialogue” is being maintained with the objective of securing a solution that fully adheres to the DMA while concurrently acknowledging the grievances of the developer community.

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