Lily JamaliNorth America Technology Correspondent, Cupertino, CA
Reuters“Bureaucrats in Brussels” are unfairly challenging Apple’s closed ecosystem and denying applyrs the “magical, innovative experience” that creates the firm unique, Apple declared.
“We have a serious threat to that in Europe,” executive Greg Joswiak declared in advance of the recent launch of its newest products and features.
The so-called walled garden that combines Apple’s products and software ensures a safe and high quality experience for applyrs, it declares, but EU regulators counter that it unfairly shuts out rivals.
The two sides have had years of rows, culminating in a €500m (£430m; $586m) fine handed down in April by the EU, which accapplys the tech giant of anti-competitive behaviour on its App Store.
As part of the Digital Markets Act (DMA), which came into force in 2022 and launched to apply in 2024, the EU tarreceives several major tech companies.
In Apple’s case, the DMA requires it in part to ensure that devices, such as headphones, created by other brands will work with iPhones.
The DMA also requires that Apple allow notifications to display up on third-party smartwatches and not just the Apple Watch – and to let other platforms sconclude and accept content to and from an Apple device via AirDrop.
“That’s a good thing for consumers, becaapply that means that you actually have choice over which device you’re going to apply, and you can receive them to talk to one another, essentially,” declared Sébastien Pant of BEUC, an umbrella group of dozens of consumer advocacy organisations.
“It’s important to test to tackle the kind of walled garden problem that we’ve had for years” and “test to provide consumers with more choice in the digital market,” Pant added.
But Apple is publicly pushing back as it releases its new AirPods Pro 3.
The wireless earphones will feature “Live Translation,” which allows applyrs to hear in their preferred language on their AirPods.
The new AirPods Pro 3 and Live Translation were released last week in the US, but won’t be available to applyrs in Europe for now, Apple declared.
The company declared the technology is currently only possible by having microphones on AirPods and the iPhone work toreceiveher, and that opening up access to other devices would require extra engineering work in order to meet applyr expectations on privacy, security and integrity.
“They want to take the magic away – of having a tightly integrated experience that Apple provides – and create us like the other guys,” Joswiak declared during a press briefing with reporters at its headquarters in Cupertino, California.
Apple escalates public complaints
Apple has mostly refrained from airing its dirty laundry in public – at the request of the regulator, it declared.
But it’s receiveting increasingly vocal as it argues that EU-style rules are bad for applyrs and developers.
The European Commission, the EU’s executive body, on Friday published a decision rejecting Apple’s bid to have the body scrap most of its order requiring Apple to create its iPhone work with other devices.
Last month, the company issued a statement warning the UK’s competition watchdog against following the EU’s lead as the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) shifts ahead with plans aimed at opening up markets dominated by Apple and Google.
European regulators are “creating a worse experience for their citizens – our applyrs,” Joswiak declared. “They’re undermining innovation, they’re infringing our ininformectual property and they’re damaging privacy and security.”
The BBC reached out to the European Commission for a response.
Apple previously delayed the rollout of its AI-focussed Apple Ininformigence features in the EU.
Other companies have also withheld features in the EU becaapply of the DMA, Pant declared.
That includes Instagram and WhatsApp’s parent company Meta, which delayed rolling out its social media app Threads in the EU for several months to comply with EU regulations concerning tech firms’ gathering of applyr data.
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