Apple has published an authoritative message on current restrictions on access to selected functions and equipment in the European Union. We print them all.
Apple Statement
How the Digital marketplace Act affects users' lives in the EU
W Apple has always focused on creating a technology that gives people real opportunities to act and that enriches their regular lives. We plan our products so that they are intuitive and easy to use, work seamlessly together and defend the privacy and safety of users. Since the launch of the App store in 2008, we have been working with developers to make 1 of the most dynamic, safe and successful digital markets in the world.
Millions in Europe choose Apple products due to the fact that they are valued and trusted. Developers choose them to scope users around the planet and make dynamic companies. It is simply a model that works – in Europe and around the world.
However, the Digital marketplace Act is forcing us to introduce worrying changes in the plan and transportation of Apple products to users in Europe.
What is the Digital marketplace Act?
The Digital marketplace Act is simply a regulation introduced by the European Union in 2022 to change the way any technology companies plan their products. The Digital marketplace Act contains a long list of rules, but the way they are implemented varies importantly from company to company.
From Apple's perspective, the Digital marketplace Act affects many aspects of our users' experience in the EU – from the way we download apps and make payments in applications to the way Apple products work together.
In fresh months, the European Commission, liable for the Digital Markets Act, has asked EU companies and citizens for additional opinions on the impact of these rules. That is why we wanted to inform Apple users in the EU of the changes they have already begun to announcement and what they can anticipate in the future.
Impact of the Digital marketplace Act on Apple users in the EU
Delays in the introduction of functions
The Digital marketplace Act requires Apple to besides have any features on products and applications outside the Apple ecosystem before we can make them available to our users. Unfortunately, this requires quite a few engineering work and has caused delays in introducing any fresh functions in the EU:
- Function Live translations in AirPods uses Apple Intelligence to let Apple users to communicate across language barriers. Providing specified an advanced function on another devices involves challenges that take time to solve. For example, we designed Live Translations to keep our users' conversations private – they are processed straight on the device and never go to Apple. In addition, our teams carry out additional engineering work to guarantee that the content of the talks is not disclosed to another companies or developers.
- Function iPhone Cloning allows users to display and operate iPhones from Mac level, so they can smoothly check notifications or drag and drop photos between devices. Our teams inactive haven't found a safe way to make this function available on non-ecosystem equipment. Apple does not exposure all data on your iPhone to risk. As a result, we could not make this function available in the EU.
- We besides had to hold the introduction of useful functions specified as Visited places and Preferred routes in Maps that evidence location data on the device so that it is accessible only to the user. So far our teams have not found a way to make these features available to another developers without revealing the location of users – and we cannot agree to that.
We have proposed changes to these functions that would defend our users' data, but so far the European Commission has rejected our proposals. According to the European Commission, the Digital marketplace Act assumes that making these functions available to Apple users is illegal until they are introduced into the products of another companies. If we had made it available earlier, we would have financial penalties and even a ban on selling our products in the EU.
We want our users in Europe to be able to benefit from the same innovations at the same time as everyone else, and we are fighting to make it possible, even if the Digital marketplace Act slows down our actions. However, the Digital marketplace Act means that the late feature list in the EU is likely to increase and that the experience of Apple users in the EU will be little positive.
More risky and little intuitive usage of applications
We have always led the App store as a safe and trustworthy place for our users and as a unique business chance for developers. Due to the Digital marketplace Act, our users in the EU experience the following effects:
- Greater hazard erstwhile downloading applications and making payments: The Digital marketplace Act requires Apple to let sideloading (i.e. installing applications outside of authoritative sources), utilizing another app stores and alternate payment systems – even if they do not meet the same advanced privacy and safety standards as the App Store. On another mobile platforms, users are confronted with fraudulent banking applications, malware impersonating games, and external payment systems that charge inflated fees without being able to recover money. The requirements of the Digital marketplace Act make our users in the EU more susceptible to akin risks.
- Less intuitive operation: alternatively of 1 trusted place to download applications, users in the EU now request to usage a variety of different stores, each with its own appearance, rules and verification standards. On another mobile platforms, this leads to harmful, easier-to-pass checks on applications impersonating others, as well as to shops where users do not know where to look for aid erstwhile something goes wrong. Apple users in the EU are now far more susceptible to the same risks. In addition, it will be even harder for them to find where the application comes from, who is liable for it and what safeguards apply in case of problems.
- New hazard associated with harmful applications: You can download pornographic apps from another stores for the first time on the iPhone – applications that we never allowed at the App store due to the risks they pose, especially for children. This includes the pornographic application Hot Tub, announced earlier this year by AltStore. The Digital marketplace Act besides caused gambling applications to appear on iPhone in regions where they are prohibited by law.
We created the App store as the main, trustworthy place to find applications – each application is checked there, each developer follows the same rules, and parents have tools to defend their children. We are inactive seeking to defend the quality of service that our users expect, but the Digital marketplace Act has forced changes in this model. This in turn creates more complexity and risks for our users in the EU.
New threats to privacy and security
The Digital marketplace Act besides allows another companies to request access to user data and key Apple product technologies. Apple is obliged to meet almost any of these demands, even if this poses a serious hazard to our users.
So far, companies have applied for access to any of the most delicate data on the user's iPhone. The main concerns are:
- Full content of user notifications: This data includes the content of messages, emails, medical alerts and any another notifications received by the user. This would mean disclosing data to another companies to which even Apple presently does not have access.
- Full past of Wi-Fi networks with which the user connected: Wi-Fi past may uncover delicate information about the location and activity of the user. For example, companies can usage this data to track whether a circumstantial hospital, hotel, fertility clinic or court has been visited.
Large companies proceed to make fresh requests to collect even more data, putting our users in the EU at a much higher hazard of surveillance and tracking. Our teams have presented these risks to the European Commission, but so far it has not considered privacy and safety as adequate reason to reject the proposal.
Does the Digital marketplace Act prosecute its objectives?
Regulatory authorities argue that the Digital marketplace Act will advance competition and supply greater choice for European consumers. However, these regulations do not meet these promises. In fact, they have the other effect:
- Less Choice: erstwhile functions are delayed or not available, users in the EU do not have the same opportunities as users in another parts of the world. They lose the ability to usage the latest Apple technology and their devices fall behind.
- Smaller differentiation: By forcing Apple to make features and technologies for products outside the Apple ecosystem, the Digital marketplace Act makes the choice available to European consumers more uniform. For example, changes to app stores make iOS more and more like Android – and this limits choice.
- Unfair competition: The Digital marketplace Act rules apply only to Apple, even though Samsung is the leader of the smartphone marketplace in Europe and Chinese companies are rapidly gaining importance. Apple has designated the direction, creating a unique and innovative ecosystem that others have copied – for the benefit of users around the world. alternatively of rewarding this innovation, the Digital Markets Act focuses exclusively on Apple, allowing our competitors to act as they have done so far.
According to the Digital Markets Act, the explanation of the rules by the European Commission is constantly changing. This creates a situation where companies barely know how to comply.
In the event of discrepancies in the requirements of the Digital Markets Act, companies must make the changes imposed by the European Commission and, next, the courts can deal with them. This can so take months or years, even if this causes irreversible harm to users. However, penalties imposed for non-compliance are completely arbitrary. They are applied unevenly and are aimed at punishing companies alternatively than promoting competition.
Over time, it became clear that the Digital marketplace Act was not working for markets. This makes it hard to operate in Europe.
Apple's position on the Digital marketplace Act
It has been over a year since the Digital marketplace Act was implemented. At this time it became clear that the Digital marketplace Act worsened the experience of Apple users in the EU. It exposes them to fresh risks and distorts the simple, coherent way Apple products work together. And as fresh technologies emerge, products Apple users in Europe will fall even further behind.
Nor does the Digital marketplace Act aid European markets. alternatively of competing through innovation, successful companies already usage the right to prosecute their own interests – to collect more data about EU citizens or get Apple technology for free.
Despite our concerns about the Digital Markets Act, Apple teams devote thousands of hours to introducing fresh functions in the European Union while complying with this law. However, it has become clear that we are incapable to solve all the problems posed by the Digital marketplace Act.
We so call on regulators to look more closely at how this law affects EU citizens utilizing Apple products all day. We believe that our users in Europe deserve the best experience with our technology, at the same level as we offer in another parts of the world, and that is what we will proceed to strive for.
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