EU antitrust chief criticizes Apple for suspending functions

EU antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager criticized Apple for its decision not to roll out some new features in the EU, calling it a “staggering declaration” of the company’s anti-competitive practices.

On June 21, Apple announced that its “Apple Intelligence” artificial intelligence suite and iPhone mirroring features would not be available to European users at launch due to concerns over the EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA). The DMA aims to promote fair competition in the digital market by imposing obligations on large gatekeeper companies such as Apple. Apple was also the first company accused of violating the DMA.

Vestager argued that Apple’s decision to withhold features specific to its ecosystem goes against the spirit of DMA, which encourages open competition. She emphasized that Apple seems to have no problem implementing these features wherever there are no competitive demands.

As a result, Apple has stated that it will not launch its new features in the IRS environment and claims that it will not do so due to obligations it has in Europe. And the responsibilities they have in Europe is to be open to competition, it’s sort of a short version of the DMA.

It’s very interesting that they’re saying that we’re now going to deploy AI where we’re not required to enable competition. I think that’s the most stunning, open statement that they know 100% that this is another way to lock out competition where they’re already well-established.

Vestager said

Apple remains committed to bringing these features to the EU, but has expressed is concerned that DMA interoperability requirements could threaten user privacy and data security.

For example, iPhone mirroring uses Device Attestation, which verifies the user’s identity and the authenticity of the device. According to Apple, adapting this feature to work with third-party devices may cause security issues. Apple used the same statement some time ago when it revealed that it tried to make the Apple Watch work with Androids, but abandoned the project due to similar challenges and spent 3 years on it.

It is worth noting that DMA does not impose feature parity between regions; Apple is under no obligation to offer features that are identical to features available in the EU and other markets.

This is not the first time there has been tension between the EU and Apple.

More here.