Apple Demands EU Repeal the Digital Markets Act
arstechnica.com
arstechnica.com
> “Despite our concerns with the DMA, teams across Apple are spending thousands of hours to bring new features to the European Union while meeting the law’s requirements. But it’s become clear that we can’t solve every problem the DMA creates,” the company said.
The title of this article seems like sensationalized Clickbait, and I expect better from arstechnica.
Do they really expect us to feel sorry for this trillion dollar corporation...?
> it’s become clear that we can’t solve every problem the DMA creates
Then pull out of the european market and eat the loss!
Expect clickbait articles, shallow tech coverage, rabid commenters (I don't visit the forum but the comments were previously - mostly - of higher quality).
I still follow it because I haven't found a worthy replacement yet.
As for the article, it actually says this was within a routine consultation, ie. EU asked companies what they think and (as you point out) Apple politely responded.
Apple say it may stopping shipping to the EU
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45372515
Google say The Digital Markets Act: time for a reset
Let's see if they walk the walk, I highly doubt it.
It makes it even funnier to see those two, with some of the highest margins of profit vs revenue in the industry, raking in double-digits billions of profit per quarter, complaining about higher costs.
Cry me a river...
>The DMA should be repealed while a more appropriate fit for purpose legislative instrument is put in place... Despite our concerns with the DMA, teams across Apple are spending thousands of hours to bring new features to the European Union while meeting the law’s requirements. But it’s become clear that we can’t solve every problem the DMA creates.
The headline could just have easily said "Apple Requests" or "Apple Suggests".
I doubt it would make waves if Apple expressed the same opinion about some US legislation. Is Apple allowed to have an opinion about legislation in other countries where it operates?
Laws like the DMA were specifically made to fight the influence of mega corporations like Apple. For them to use language like "it should be repealed" instead of "it should be changed" shows their intent.
I support the EU's right to shape their digital environment. But if you're being threatened with fines on the order of $38 billion which are levied based on vague, ever-changing rules, then of course you will want that situation to go away while the law gets fixed.
On the other hand, cynically speaking, maybe "fighting Apple's influence" through arbitrary fines is actually the point.
My understanding is that Apple's proposed approach to CSAM prevention (which was subsequently abandoned) made significantly greater attempts to protect user privacy compared with the current EU chat control proposal.
Why lie about stuff that's so easy to check?
https://www.wired.com/story/apple-csam-scanning-heat-initiat...
I expect there are many other falsehoods of yours in this thread, but I'm not going to try to identify all of them. I just want to know: What motivates you to make claims which can be refuted with a 30-second Google search?
For example, at the gym I go to they do have a card reader as an alternative to checking in with the app, but at one point it was not working, which meant a smartphone was mandatory to go to the gym. And it was left that way for months; fixing it was clearly not a priority because the expectation of society is that everyone has a smartphone (you'll be met with surprise if you tell people you don't have their app installed, and incredulity at the idea that someone might not have a smartphone). And outside my workplace they put up car charging stations that have no way to pay for charging without an app.
And then (at least here in Sweden) there are increasingly places that accept no payment methods other than mobile payments (Swish here in Sweden), and online services like healthcare services requiring you to authenticate with BankID on a smartphone (or sometimes Freja e-ID, which also requires a smartphone), for things like ordering from pharmacies, doing your taxes online (and getting your tax return sooner), accessing healthcare services etc, and meanwhile physical alternatives like physical pharmacies are increasingly getting outcompeted and shutdown. So you may be able to get by without one, but at the cost of getting cut off from parts of society, and that's likely to increase.
And of course there was recently the news that the UK may require a digital ID (probably on and Android or iOS phone) in order to get employment or residence: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/starmer-digit...
I mean, I think they're wrong. But that said... what's the argument here? Apple shouldn't be allowed to say that they hate a law that they actually hate? Apple should absolutely feel entitled ("emboldened" even) to express their opinions. That's the whole point about civil discourse, no?
https://www.piratewires.com/p/eu-weaponizes-regulation-us-te...
https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2025/09/the-digital-markets-a...
Which doesn’t read like a demand to me. Now, we may all agree or disagree with Apple’s claim, but characterizing it as a “demand” is pure modern journalism.
As for Apple, WTF gives a US company any right to demand anything from Europe? Chutzpa?
I am also finding it bizarre, if there would be a European company in US ignoring US laws and wanting to repeal them for something more European, whole federal government would be screaming bloody murder.
Microsoft missed mobile under Ballmer. Apple is missing both AI and whatever becomes of AR. Isn’t kind of sad that Meta is pushing the envelope on AR more than Apple?
No. I don’t see how that necessarily follows.
How is this "Apple demands EU repeal the Digital Markets Act" ?
The documents link the DMA page on the EC website: https://digital-markets-act.ec.europa.eu/consultation-first-...
Interestingly there is no published filing by Apple, yet, and the consultation is closed for two days. Maybe they filed late and publishing the feedback takes time, due to the EC reading it before putting it on their website. Or quite possibly Apple did not actually file anything as part of the official process and is instead publishing their opinion on their blog.
Average European is like average American, they are not following these political and corporational dramas, but they can tell that i.e. Samsung has features, while Apple is stale.
The GDPR is what really gave it enforcement teeth though and that's when it really exploded and made the banners more intrusive and adopted by non-EU-native websites that weren't based in but still did business inside the EU.
"Or else" is already happening. MacOS and IOS have fewer features in EU than USA. IPhone screen mirroring is not available in EU for example. All regulations have cost and legal risks. At some point it may not worth it financially.
iPhone mirroring was cute when I first tried it, but now when I click on a notification on my laptop and it tries to open the mirroring application I am annoyed. It’s the tiniest version of my phone and takes a while to come up, if it doesn’t fail for some reason. I should turn it off.
The other features they mention aren’t very compelling. I’m in the Netherlands now with a US Apple account so I can use them, but don’t care to.
It's a bit wild to suggest the mildest of regulation is going to make abandoning a market of 700m people "worth it" lol
In the EU Apple already has significantly less marketshare than Android. In an at least somewhat competitive market threatening consumers doesn't make a whole lot of sense because someone will always be glad to pick them up.
Corporations love giving consumers their "take it or leave it" deals. You either accept their long list of abusive "terms and conditions" in their entirety or you get nothing. So give them one of those deals. Either submit completely or lose the entire european market. No negotiation.
They lawyers can't figure out how to comply with the rules? Literally who cares? They are worth trillions of dollars. Their problems don't matter to anyone.
Same can be said by the USA to EU car maker. Make BMW the same in EU and the USA, by adhering to the US law of course. No half measures.
Surely this just instantly backfires for the EU when we have such a strongman, protectionist president like Trump running things in the US? I doubt he'd sit by and say "well one of our most valuable companies got what they deserved, well struck EU."
> the company could stop shipping some products and services to the 27-country bloc.
But not all products of course.
>...there’s evidence to believe the regulation is designed to extract from companies, rather than protect consumers: as we’ll see, the bloc often imposes massive, clearly premeditated fines immediately after compliance deadlines...
>...
>The fines permitted under both regulations are unprecedented; the DSA permits fines of up to 6% of a company’s global annual revenue, while the DMA permits fines of up to 10% of a company’s global annual revenue, and an egregious 20% for repeat offenses.
https://www.piratewires.com/p/eu-weaponizes-regulation-us-te...
The EU can write itself a check for up to 26% of Apple's annual revenue (6% + 20%). Coincidentally, that's the same as your 26% number for Apple net sales from the EU. But if Apple gets fined 26%, that represents a huge loss of capital since they still have to pay for COGS, pay taxes, pay employee salaries, and so forth.
“Hey, we’ve decided to cut 25% of our revenue”
The stock price would love it