EU to step up enforcement of Apple’s DMA rules

European Union authorities are taking new steps to ensure Apple Inc. complies with EU technology industry DMA regulations.

The European Commission, the EU’s executive body, announced initiative today.

The Digital Markets Act is a law aimed at preventing tech giants from engaging in harmful business practices. Many of the provisions of the act do not apply at the company level, but only to specific products that the EU designates as essential platform services. Apple’s iOS, App Store, and Safari received that designation in September last year, and iPadOS was added to the list in April this year.

The first target of the DMA compliance initiative announced today is iOS. Specifically, the EU will examine the set of iOS features that consumers use to connect their iPhones to connected devices. Officials will advise Apple on how to implement these features in a DMA-compliant manner.

The European Commission has detailed that the connected device capabilities under scrutiny relate to “notifications, device pairing and connectivity.” These use cases are also at the center of antitrust lawsuit that the Justice Department filed against Apple earlier this year. The lawsuit cites three use cases in the context of the Apple Watch, raising the possibility that the EU’s new regulatory initiative could also focus on the smartwatch series.

Apple lets users read notifications sent to their iPhones on their Apple Watch. The same integration isn’t available for other companies’ smartwatches, which the Justice Department says hurts competition.

Device pairing and connectivity, two other use cases that EU officials will prioritize, are also discussed in the Justice Department lawsuit. The complaint alleges that iPhones can connect more reliably to the Apple Watch than to other companies’ smartwatches via Bluetooth. The capabilities of the Apple Watch when it’s not actively paired or connected to an iPhone are also at issue in the lawsuit.

In addition to connected device integration, the European Commission’s new DMA compliance initiative focuses on so-called interoperability requests. These are requests in which iOS and iPad app developers ask Apple for broader access to their operating systems or underlying hardware. Regulators will help the iPhone maker ensure that the “request process is transparent, timely, and fair.”

“Today, for the first time, we are using the DMA specification procedures to guide Apple towards effective compliance with its interoperability commitments through constructive dialogue,” said Margrethe Vestager, Executive Vice-President of the European Commission. “Our focus is on ensuring fair and open digital markets.”

The European Commission expects to complete the initiative within six months. It also plans to publish a summary of its findings regarding Apple’s compliance with the DMA and the steps that may be necessary to address compliance issues.

Photo: Reveal