After being walloped with a €500 million fine earlier this year for stiffing developers with its App Store “steering” rules, Job’s Mob is dangling a few last-minute concessions in front of the European Commission in the hope of buying more time.

Sources familiar with the wrangling say the outfit is expected to tweak its rules around steering users to cheaper offers outside its walled garden. The regulators had given them two months to sort it out or face escalating fines of up to five per cent of daily global revenue. For a company worth $3 trillion, that adds up to a fair whack.

In classic Apple fashion, the firm is haggling over its so-called Core Technology Fee, a charge that kicks in after a developer’s app hits 1 million installs. That little earner has been on the EU’s radar since June 2024 and could either be quietly dropped or morph into another regulatory battlefield.

The European Commission said it’s been “engaging closely with Apple to discuss effective compliance” but refused to tip its hand ahead of the looming deadline. “The commission has ample regulatory powers at its disposal, if Apple continues to be in breach of its obligations under the DMA,” it warned.

To add a bit of geopolitical seasoning, the EU’s tech crackdown is taking place just as former US president Donald Trump lands in The Hague for a NATO summit. Trump has previously ranted that EU tech fines amount to “overseas extortion” and a “form of taxation”. Brussels and Washington are nudging up against a 9 July trade deal deadline, which should make for some entertaining transatlantic diplomacy.

Meanwhile, Meta’s own bid to dodge fines with its November 2024 changes to personalised ad consent is also under the microscope this week. It seems Big Tech’s Brussels adventure is nowhere near over.