After YouTube, who restored the channels of misinformation in the Covvi-19 pandemic and the US elections, and attacked European regulations, Apple also openly criticized the European Union and specifically to the DMA, its regulations on digital markets.
“The DMA must be repealed and replaced by a more appropriate legislative text,” the Cupertino -based group asked, California, in his official contribution to a consultation launched by the European Commission.
Apple, the first DMA protester
Since the entry into force in March 2024 of the text, Apple had been forced to open the doors of iOS, its operating system for iPhone, particularly by offering other means of payment and leaving the possibility of installing classes alternatives of applications. Concessions that the company still does not seem to have digested.
In the absence of elimination, Apple offers a list of changes in depth, beginning with the creation of a regulatory agency other than the European Commission, which would be responsible for enforcing these rules.
The response of the European Union to these requests was not delayed, through the voice of Thomas Régnier, a spokesman for the commission, who told AFP that the EU has no “intention” to repeal the DMA.
Apple’s speech, regulate on the subject, is not surprising, but now you can count on weight support, Donald Trump. The US president has threatened the European Union several times for reprisals after the implementation of strict regulations.
Accusing this regulation of all evils, Apple states that it forces it to deprive European consumers of certain functions when they leave, while their engineers make sure they respect the limitations imposed by Brussels. Therefore, it would be far from promoting innovation for the benefit of consumers, their official objective.
Airpods ardor and less “intelligent”
The group ensures, for example, having had to restrict its new wireless headphones in the EU, the Airpods Pro 3, which has just been marketing, eliminating the “live” automatic translation function, while it is one of the main attractions for its customers. Reason invoked: the DMA.
The group also remembers its opposition to the opening of their aircraft to the alternative payment stores and payment systems, imposed by the DMA, despite the fact that “they do not meet the same safety standards and high standards as the application store”, its own application store.
And the company led by Tim Cook also recalls that the DMA has made pornographic applications accessible on iPhones, “despite the risks they generate, especially for children.”
Apple has incorporated its success in a closed ecosystem, from which it controls all parameters, invoking security imperatives and greater convenience of users, a philosophy in frontal opposition to the European competition rules that have been clearly reinforced with the DMA (Digital Markets Law).
This emblematic text adopted in 2022 by the EU and which is applied specifically since March 2024, provides fines of up to 10% of the company’s global turnover, and even 20% in case of recurrence.
Apple has already paid the price: the European Commission imposed in April a fine of 500 million euros for abusive clauses in the App Store. This sanction, of which the group appealed, was the first pronounced against a technological giant within the framework of this legislation.
Apple is also subject to an EU investigation in the framework of its other flagship legislation to regulate technological giants, digital services regulations (DSA), which impose bonds on platforms to protect their users against illegal and dangerous content.
Source: BFM TV
