Why isn't making the iPhone unavailable for sale in Europe not an option?
Another comment claims that the App Store represents something like 40% of Apple’s profit. If you chop a company’s profit in half and lay on a bunch of regulatory costs, pulling out of the market starts to look appealing.
And, who is to say that the EC will stop here? What happens when all the alternative app stores fail because they fail to enforce the same developer-hostile, user-friendly features as Apple (like request to track). You think the EC will just roll over and let that happen? Or will they take even stronger measures?
Continuing the humor the EC is just throwing good money after bad at this point. Shareholders can see that just as well as anyone else.
Unless they stop them from shipping iPhone hardware or tax the MSRP beyond 40%, I think it's quite literally impossible for that to happen.
Here in reality, it is a very real possibility.
Apple can't even afford to lose that though or Cook would face a board and shareholder revolt.
And what if the EC doesn't stop there, well, most of us are hoping they won't an that Apple will be paying billions in fines until they cut the malicious compliance song and dance and get serious about respecting the EU's competition laws. Apple cannot leave and will not leave and so they will ultimately do what ever the EC demands of them. It's just a matter of how much they pay in fines first.