Apple says it’s having to delay bringing some product options to Europe as a result of it’s struggling to make them compliant with the EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA). In a statement published on Wednesday, Apple mentioned that DMA guidelines have created “extra complexity and extra dangers for our EU customers,” blaming the duty to open Apple options to third-party units for the delays.
Options impacted embrace AI-powered Live Translation for AirPods, iPhone Mirroring, and Visited Locations and Most well-liked Routes on Apple Maps. Whereas interoperability requirements underneath the DMA specify that corporations make proprietary apps and machine options accessible on third-party {hardware}, Apple says it hasn’t discovered a approach to make these options accessible on non-Apple units with out compromising customers’ knowledge safety and privateness.
DMA necessities to make it simpler to pair, switch knowledge, and show notifications between iPhones and third-party units are bearing some fruit, nevertheless. The latest iOS 26.1 beta suggests {that a} “notification forwarding” characteristic will permit iPhone notifications to floor on non-Apple units, akin to smartwatch rivals to the Apple Watch. The beta additionally contains references to a characteristic that can make it simpler to pair iPhones with third-party equipment.
Regardless of its ongoing opposition to the DMA, Apple insists that it’s “spending 1000’s of hours” to be compliant with the regulation’s necessities, and that the “record of delayed options within the EU will in all probability get longer” as a consequence of these impediments. The EU has given Apple till the top of this yr to open up most of those options if it makes them accessible to European customers, or danger dealing with extra fines underneath the DMA. The corporate was hit with a $580 million penalty in April after the App Retailer violated anti-steering necessities underneath the rulebook.
The iPhone maker has known as for the DMA regulation to be repealed “whereas a extra applicable match for objective legislative instrument is put in place,” in line with a feedback submission seen by the Financial Times.
Whereas Apple’s considerations round consumer safety might maintain benefit, the corporate can also be motivated to see the DMA scrapped to forestall the laws from tearing down the walled backyard that incentivizes customers to remain in its product ecosystem. Denying Europeans entry to options over DMA compliance considerations might assist Apple hold its consumer base on-side in its argument with the EU.