A recent post on social media platform X by Viktor Maric has sparked significant attention regarding Apple’s compliance with the Digital Markets Act (DMA). The post, which went viral on Monday, featured a screenshot of the warning interstitial that Apple forces upon users. This alert message informs users that purchases made in specific applications are covered by the application designer, rather than Apple. It offers a direct path to the more favorable option, inviting them to “Learn More.” The post went highly viral, racking up over a thousand likes and shares in a matter of minutes, especially among the mobile developer ecosystem.
Interest in these warnings has exploded in the past few years. This shift has raised some eyebrows with the absence of developers joining Apple’s external purchases option permitted through DMA. Full-stack entrepreneur and long-time tech leader Jacob Eiting has a theory. Part of his philosophy is that most people are only beginning to notice these warnings and alerts. He remarked, “I think this is EU only and might have been around for a while. I just assumed nobody bothered with the DMA implementation for external purchases since they were pointless.” His sentiment highlights a deep fear about how well developers can or will respond to regulatory flips.
Specifically, Apple added language in August 2024 to its user disclosure screen, as originally required by their DMA plan approval. Despite that, developer participation has been low. Eiting noted that less than 100 developers have taken advantage of the external purchases feature. “Fewer than 100 developers have availed themselves of this option for obvious reasons,” he added, suggesting that many find the alternative less viable.
In April 2025, the European Commission (EC) fined Apple to the tune of €500 million. This fine followed the tech giant’s repeated failure to comply with the Digital Markets Act (DMA). The continued oversight is just one example of the complex environment tech companies working in heavily regulated spaces find themselves in.
Sarah Lacy is a former columnist for Bloomberg News and current reporter-at-large for TechCrunch. She draws upon a wealth of experience from her previous roles in I.T. within banking, retail, and software industries. She came to TechCrunch after a three-plus year stint at ReadWriteWeb, where she got her tech reporting chops.