Donald Trump reveals that Tim Cook called him for advice on Apple's huge EU fine
As the presidential election looms, Donald Trump appeared on a podcast and revealed his 'close' relationship with Apple CEO Tim Cook.
Trump says Tim Cook called him to complain about the European Union - The Verge
https://www.theverge.com/2024/10/17/24272648/donald-trump-tim-cook-complain-european-union-fines
Donald Trump says Tim Cook is a better Apple CEO than Steve Jobs
https://qz.com/apple-donald-trump-ceo-tim-cook-steve-jobs-eu-fines-1851675399
During an interview with Iranian-American entrepreneur Patrick Bet-David, Trump said that Cook had called him a few hours before the appearance, revealing that he had consulted him about Apple's EU fine order.
In recent years, technology companies have been under scrutiny, mainly in the EU, for market monopoly, and Apple in particular has been accused of violating several rules with its own app store, the App Store.
One of the violations was the 'anti-steering provision,' which prohibits music streaming apps from directing users to their own cheaper services. Most music streaming apps offer paid subscription services, and if a user signs up for a subscription service using Apple's payment system, the app distributor must pay a system fee to Apple. On the other hand, if the payment is made on the app distributor's own website, such fees are not incurred, so some apps distributed on the App Store set the price higher when Apple's payment is used. App distributors can tell users that 'it is cheaper to use a service other than Apple,' but this is prohibited by the aforementioned anti-steering provision.
In March 2024, the European Commission announced that it would impose a fine of 1.84 billion euros (about 299 billion yen) on Apple for violating the EU's antitrust laws, including the anti-steering regulations.
Apple initially indicated it would appeal, stating, 'The Commission has found that the App Store poses a barrier to competition in the digital music market, despite the fact that it has failed to provide any credible evidence of consumer harm. This ignores the reality of a vibrant, competitive and rapidly growing market.'
In addition, in 2016, the European Commission pointed out that 'Apple had received unfair tax benefits in Ireland' and demanded that Apple pay 13 billion euros (about 2.11 trillion yen) in back taxes. In September 2024, the European Court of Justice ruled that Apple was punished.
Apple to pay additional tax of 2 trillion yen for unfair tax treatment in Ireland - GIGAZINE
According to Trump, Cook told Trump that he was facing two fines and said, 'Europe is an EU 'business,' and the EU is using the law to run their own business,' to which Trump responded, 'Tim, first and foremost, you have to get elected, but if you do, you're not going to allow the EU to take advantage of our American businesses.'
According to Trump, he had a close relationship with Cook and had many interactions with him during his presidency. Cook reportedly called Trump frequently during his presidency, even hosting him at Apple's headquarters in Austin, Texas, and in return persuading Trump to grant exemptions from a series of tariffs on Chinese imports.
During the podcast, Trump also described Cook as a 'very good businessman' and said, 'I'm not bashing Steve Jobs, but if Jobs was still running Apple instead of Cook, Apple wouldn't be as successful as it is now. I think Cook has done a great job.'
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