Apple ramps up ‘war of words’ with EU regulators over ‘walled garden’ approach

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Apple has escalated its public feud with EU regulators, accusing them of unfairly challenging its business model and threatening to take the “magic” out of its products.

Executives at the tech giant have warned that the new Digital Markets Act (DMA), a landmark piece of EU regulation, poses a “serious threat” to the closed ecosystem that Apple says provides a safe, secure, and high-quality experience for its users.

In a recent statement, the company said “bureaucrats in Brussels” are undermining the “magical, innovative experience” that makes the firm unique.

From Apple’s perspective, the new regulations are forcing the company to dismantle the very features that define its products. As part of the DMA, Apple is required to ensure that third-party devices, such as headphones and smartwatches, work seamlessly with iPhones and other Apple hardware.

This push for interoperability, Apple argues, requires complex and costly engineering work to maintain its high standards for privacy, security, and integrity. This frustration has led the company to publicly push back, with executive Greg Joswiak lamenting that regulators “want to take the magic away… and make us like the other guys.”

The company has also delayed the rollout of new features like “Live Translation” for its AirPods in Europe and has been hit with a €500m fine over alleged anti-competitive behaviour related to its App Store.

The European Union, however, views Apple’s so-called “walled garden” as an anti-competitive problem that unfairly stifles rivals. According to Sébastien Pant of BEUC, a consumer advocacy group, the DMA is a necessary step to “tackle the kind of walled garden problem that we’ve had for years” and “try to provide consumers with more choice in the digital market.”

Regulators have specifically targeted Apple’s refusal to allow third-party smartwatches to receive notifications on its devices and for other platforms to use AirDrop for content sharing. They argue that this practice locks consumers into the Apple ecosystem and limits their options.

The EU has made it clear it will not back down, recently rejecting Apple’s bid to have the body scrap most of its order requiring the iPhone to work with other devices. The fundamental conflict boils down to Apple’s insistence on control for the sake of a unified experience versus the EU’s push for a more open, competitive digital market.

BBC 

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