EU

The European Union pushed back Thursday after Apple said the Digital Markets Act — antitrust legislation aimed at broadening competition among tech companies — is backfiring on consumers and forcing Apple to delay key features for European users.

In a detailed statement submitted during the EU’s review process, Apple claimed the DMA is achieving the opposite of its stated goals. Apple’s statement, issued Wednesday, was the company’s strongest criticism of the law to date, and EU leaders did not care for it. But European Commission spokesman Thomas Regnier said the lawmakers were “not surprised” by Apple’s stance.

“Apple has simply contested every little bit of the DMA since its entry into application,” said Regnier in a Politico article, adding that Apple has snubbed EU efforts to have positive talks on the matter. “This undermines the company’s narrative of wanting to be fully cooperative with the Commission.”

In addition to the European Commission, some users took issue with Apple’s statement slamming the DMA.

Apple appears set to dodge potentially devastating daily fines from European Union regulators, according to a new report Tuesday. Sources indicate the company’s revised App Store policies will likely receive approval in the coming weeks.

By E.U. law, Apple must let iPhone applications include payment systems other than Apple’s own. But in a move that seems calculated to convince customers and developers to avoid these alternatives, there’s now a “scare screen” on applications that do not offer Apple’s payment system in the European Union version of the App Store.

The system Apple set up to enable EU residents to load apps onto their iPhones outside the App Store violates the Digital Markets Act, according to a decision handed down Wednesday by the European Commission. It cites “overly strict eligibility requirements” and Apple’s new Core Technology Fee as reasons.

It’s a preliminary decision, but if Apple doesn’t make the app sideloading process easier, the DMA gives the European Commission the right to hit the iPhone maker with hefty fines.

AirDrop and AirPlay are the latest Apple technologies the European Union wants to make more interoperable. This would give third-party developers, including rival handset makers, access to the tech.

But Apple is pushing back hard. Apple has made the jaw-dropping claim that opening up AirDrop and AirPlay would allow companies like Meta (which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp) to read all your emails, messages, photos and even passwords!

Apple ran out of appeals after a Tuesday ruling by the European Union’s highest court that the iPhone-maker must pay 13 billion euros ($14.3 billion) in taxes it’s owed since 2016.

It’s the final result of a scheme in which Apple tried to lower its taxes by routing European revenues through Ireland, where it was charged a lower tax rate.

European iPhone and iPad users will be able to kick Apple’s Phone and Messages apps to the curb if they wish. The same goes for an array of other applications that iOS currently makes the default options.

These join a long list of other changes being forced on Apple by the EU’s Digital Markets Act.

The Epic Games Store launched Friday, allowing iPhone users to install the popular Fortnite for the first time since Apple kicked Epic out of the official App Store in 2020.

But there’s an important caveat: the new iOS app marketplace is available only in the European Union.

Apple is making changes to its App Store policies in the European Union to comply with the Digital Markets Act. It’s essentially easing linking rules for developers, so they can send customers elsewhere than the App Store for purchases. And it’s attaching new fees for sales that result from the links.

Apple revealed Friday that it will not introduce in the European Union the artificial intelligence features for iPhone, Mac and iPad it recently announced. The company blamed the EU’s Digital Markets Act for the decision.

Several other new features of the upcoming macOS Sequoia, iOS 18 and iPadOS 18 will also not debut in the EU.

The European Commission is reportedly getting ready to charge Apple for not following rules laid down by Digital Markets Act that require the iPhone maker to allow third-party software developers to “steer” consumers to offers outside the App Store, free of charge.

If found guilty, Apple faces potentially heavy fines.

The iPad joined the European Union’s list of “gatekeeper” platforms Monday. The designation requires Apple to make the same sorts of sweeping changes to iPadOS that the company already made to iPhone, including allowing sideloading of applications.

Apple has six months to implement the modifications.

The European Commission opened a noncompliance investigation Monday into whether Apple is fully following the rules that went into effect with the EU’s Digital Markets Act. If not, Apple faces potentially heavy fines.

The Mac-maker isn’t being singled out. The EC also opened similar investigations into Alphabet/Google and Meta/Facebook.

EU developers can forgo the App Store entirely and distribute their apps directly to iPhone users from their own websites, Apple said Tuesday. This is a significant reversal from Apple’s original rules, which required devs that wanted to skip the official App Store to place iPhone software in third-party software marketplaces.

In another major change, Apple also will allow EU developers to create app marketplaces that sell only their own software.

Apple is building a way out of the iOS “walled garden.” It promised on Thursday to make it easier to switch the data from an iPhone to an Android or other handset.

That said, the migration tool is part of Apple complying with the European Union’s Digital Market Act so the solution might not be available outside of the EU.

Epic Games will not be able to bring Fortnite back to the European Union. Apple canceled the company’s developer account (again) and called Epic “verifiably untrustworthy.”

Shutting down the developer account also means that the game-maker won’t be able to open its promised rival to the App Store.

Apple changed course and is not disabling iPhone web apps in the European Union. The method for turning websites into applications will not disappear with the release is iOS 17.4 after all.

The flip-flop is just a small aspect of big changes coming to iOS because of EU legislation.

Apple just seeded the release candidate of iOS 17.4 to developers. When it goes to the general public — probably next week — it’ll bring in a collection of new emoji to iPhone, and a more secure version of iMessage. For Europeans, the update will be a major one, as it’ll usher in sideloading and other changes.

The release candidate for iPadOS 17.4 also came out Tuesday. However, macOS Sonoma 14.4 is still on beta 5.

A noted Apple critic used the terms “malicious compliance” and “hot garbage” to describe the elaborate rules the company laid down Thursday for allowing European iPhone users to sideload applications.

Those blasts came from Tim Sweeney, CEO of Epic Games, a company that’s locked in a legal battle with Apple over App Store rules. But other devs also cast aspersions on Apple’s framework for setting up App Store rivals. They pointed out that the new system comes with a huge financial obligation, and that it will make free apps almost impossible.

To be clear, though, not all developers are unhappy. Apple’s new rules also drew some compliments.

To comply with EU mandates, Apple will open the iPhone’s NFC payment chip to third parties, the company said Thursday. Starting in March, users in the European Economic Area will be able to utilize tap to pay on iPhone services other than Apple Pay when making purchases.

The new payment option, part of sweeping changes forced on the iPhone and iOS by the EU’s Digital Markets Act, could cut into Apple’s services revenue. And the company warns that it could put users at risk. Read more about the expansion of iPhone’s Tap to Pay feature across Europe.

The days of the iPhone’s NFC capabilities being limited to just Apple Pay could be coming to an end. Apple is reportedly open to allowing other systems to use the wireless payment system.

It’s the company’s solution to European Union objections to the iPhone’s NFC limitation.

Apple filed a challenge to an European Union law that requires iPhones to allow third-party software to be installed from outside the App Store.

Unless the appeal goes through, the legislation will go into effect in March 2024.

The good news is that iPhone could finally allow users to install applications directly starting in 2024, according to a reliable source. The bad news is that being able to go without the App Store will only be an option in Europe.

To be clear, sideloading is required by EU law so it’s definitely happening. The timing isn’t clear, though.

Now that iOS and the App Store have been labeled “gatekeepers” by the European Commission, the EU’s Digital Markets Act requires Apple to allow users to install applications directly onto iPhones. And sideloading is just one of the sweeping changes resulting from the DMA. Users apparently will be able to replace Siri with one of its rivals, for example. Other services, like iMessage, might require modification later.

One thing’s clear: The iPhone won’t be the same after the Digital Markets Act goes into effect in spring 2024.

The European Parliament passed sweeping legislation last week intended to make recycling batteries easier. The new rules will require Apple to redesign iPhone and iPad so their batteries can be replaced by users. (Android devices will face the same mandate.)

This will be the second major hardware change to Apple products to result from EU legislation. iPhones soon will come with a USB-C port in place of Lightning because of a European requirement.