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Apple is coming under increasing pressure in the dispute over the rules in its App Store.
The company suffered several setbacks within a few days.
The European Commission's competition watchdogs are reportedly preparing to send an official statement of objections to Apple before the summer.
It is about an antitrust investigation, which was initiated by the Commission last June, in which it is examining whether Apple's rules for app developers to sell apps via the App Store violate EU competition law.
In addition, the British competition authority Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) launched its own investigation, as it announced last week.
The aim is to check whether Apple has a dominant position in app sales on its devices and whether it is abusing them for unfair competition with other developers.
There is also trouble in the US state of Arizona, where the House of Representatives passed a law last week that could force Apple to give developers alternative payment methods.
Above all, Apple wanted to prevent the law in Arizona at all costs - but the lobbying efforts were fruitless.
The MPs decided with a majority of only one vote in favor of an addition to the "House Bill 2005".
Content: Apple should no longer prescribe app developers who live in Arizona how they bill their users for digital services.
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All over the world, Apple's app store business model is now being fundamentally called into question.
So far, the group has retained a commission of 30 percent on all sales from app downloads and in-app purchases, for example for premium versions of games or monthly subscriptions.
The digital services business is growing rapidly and is strategically important for Apple because the company wants to make itself more independent of pure iPhone sales.
According to a CNBC analysis, Apple users spent $ 64 billion on the App Store last year.
Apple is likely to have kept almost $ 20 billion of this for itself.
In particular, large and successful game developers such as Epic Games, but also the music streaming service Spotify, have been resisting Apple's forced involvement for some time, calling it excessive and speaking of "highway robbery".
Spotify pulled the emergency brake last July.
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Since then, subscriptions for the streaming service can no longer be concluded via the app.
Epic was even banned from Apple's App Store with its game "Fortnite" because the developer had integrated a payment option bypassing Apple - and thus violated Apple rules.
For the same reasons, "Fortnite" can no longer be found in the Google Play Store.
There is also a lot at stake for Google.
The Play Store's annual sales are expected to be around $ 40 billion.
The company would also be affected by the Arizona legislation.
That is why he defended himself against the law.
Apple promptly joined the local Chamber of Commerce - and, according to US media reports, hired influential lobbyists such as an ex-chief of staff to the governor to overturn the draft.
Without success.
However, the new rules could still fail in the end.
Because the law has yet to be approved by the Senate and signed by the Governor.
However, should it persist, some large app developers may consider at least formally relocating their headquarters to Arizona.
Because only then could they benefit from it.
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Arizona is not the only state in which the two big app store operators currently have to fear for their commissions: The lobbying group CAF - members include Spotify and Epic - has also succeeded in the states of Georgia, Hawaii and Minnesota to launch local legislative initiatives.
Spotify sees Apple Music's competitive advantage
Apple is under constant fire with its App Store that does not want to go away.
A good two weeks ago, Epic Games took the dispute to Europe and filed a cartel complaint in Brussels.
Apple would favor itself and block competitors.
That Epic will not let up should have long since reached Apple boss Tim Cook.
Because the company has long made its fight against Apple a mission.
The Epic plan even has a name: "Project Liberty".
Lawsuits are also pending in the US and Australia.
Spotify's complaint led to an antitrust investigation in Brussels.
Similar to Epic, Spotify argues that Apple uses its market power in the App Store to enforce excessively high revenue shares - and thus indirectly give its own music streaming service Apple Music a competitive advantage.
Apple itself denies the allegations.
"We created the App Store as a safe and trustworthy place where customers can download apps they love and which offers great business opportunities for developers," it said in a statement.
The App Store is a success engine for app developers, partly because of the strict standards "which we apply fairly and equally to all developers to protect customers from malware and to prevent the unlimited collection of their data without their consent".
The privacy, security and content guidelines would have made the App Store a trusted marketplace for consumers and developers alike.
The constant attacks seem to be having an effect anyway.
Apple is usually adamant and principled in public.
But in the past, criticism of business conduct in the App Store has repeatedly led to changes.
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For example, Apple gave in to pressure from developers like Spotify and Netflix and in 2016 changed its rigid 70:30 distribution key for subscriptions that renew automatically.
Since then, Apple has only received its 30 percent commission in the first year.
In the second year the proportion drops to 15 percent.
Last November, the group announced its next exception.
Since the beginning of the year, smaller developers and studios have also only paid 15 percent of their income to Apple when their applications are sold through the App Store.
Prerequisite: You must earn less than a million dollars a year.
Whoever is higher pays 30 percent again.
With projects like this, Apple is polishing its image, because competition authorities around the world are closely following what the company is doing.
"Small businesses are the backbone of our global economy and the beating heart for innovation and opportunities in communities around the world," said Apple CEO Tim Cook.