Apple has called for the European Commission to repeal a swathe of technology legislation, warning that unless it is amended the company could stop shipping some products and services to the 27-country bloc.
The Silicon Valley company hit out in a submission to the commission’s review of the three-year-old anti-monopoly legislation, which is intended to regulate the gatekeeper power of the largest digital companies including search engines, app providers and messaging services.
It said it had already delayed the launch of features such as live translation through AirPods and mirroring iPhone screens on to laptop because of the act’s demands for interoperability with non-Apple products and services.
“The DMA means the list of delayed features in the EU will probably get longer, and our EU users’ experience on Apple products will fall further behind,” it said. Apple added that Brussels was creating unfair competition as the rules were not applied to Samsung, the largest smartphone provider in the EU.
Apple sold well over $10 billion worth of Iphones in the EU in 2024, but rather than deal with the annoyance of EU regulation they’re just going to take their ball and go home.
They must think EU regulators are imbeciles.
Or they think the people in the EU will do mass protests if they don’t get their product— forcing the regulators hands; maybe because of what happened with tiktok in Nepal— missing the nuance of the political and economic factors there however.
And Apple shareholders will revolt if Apple revenues drop by $10 billion because they’re having a tantrum. I hope EU regulators call Apple’s bluff. The U.S. is a corporate hellscape, the EU doesn’t have to be.
Please stop shipping to anywhere.
I like my iPhone. It’s solid hardware and reasonably capable software. It does everything I need it to do, and gives me really solid control over API access to privacy-centric controls like location and microphone.
I still wouldn’t skip a beat to switch to another phone manufactured by another company (though I regret how much of a duopoly there is). The inconvenience is minor; Apple just needs to give me a shove and I’ll switch.
They need us (our money). We dont even like them enough to not replace them the second they go away.
Apple wouldn’t stop. They need that money too much. Also, Europe is OK with going Huawei if Google and Apple keep up with their shit.
Came here to say the same. It’s an empty threat. After all this is famously the company who made dual physical SIM iPhones for China and other Asian regions because eSIM isn’t/wasn’t legal.
Yeah I’m sure Apple’s going to give up on half a billion potential customers. Sure.
Among the requirements of the DMA is that Apple ensures that headphones made by other brands will work with iPhones. It said this has been a block on it releasing its live translation service in the EU as it allows rival companies to access data from conversations, creating a privacy problem.
I’m not really understanding this. Where is the privacy problem? What is different with airpods that solves this? At the end of the day, are they not just bluetooth headphones? Do they add some extra security layer beyond what bluetooth itself offers?
Do it stop shipping.
I remember when apple used to reverse engineer microsoft software… :/
Apple is such a piece of shit company.
Learn how to compete without behaving anti competitively or quit your fucking jobs. It’s not complicated.
Yep. Although that is the only way they’ve ever operated. They will never change without the force of law.
obvious bluff is obvious
Hey Apple… Fuck you
Don’t threaten us with a good time Apple!
They would never stop selling their products in Europe lol. And if they did, I wouldn’t care, even though I own a few Apple products.
Yeah, we don’t really have systemic/infrastructure dependency on Apple. Compared to Microsoft (which we are dependant upon atm) who can and does extort the EU a bit everywhere it can.
That’s why foss all the things!
At least Germany is starting to move away from MS
Again.
Don’t threaten me with a good time Apple.
It’s just empty threats though. The EU market is bigger than America (considering population sizes only), there is no way they’d give up on that
Given android id more popular in Europe than America, you could say apple is behind in market share, so providing less features is not a great business plan.
I’m sure fairphone would love this senario.
I can only hope that a 3rd os rises to compete with google and apple. A true Linux phonebwould be a huge boon.
