In a statement to 9to5Mac, Apple firmly rebuked the EU decision announced today about specific interoperability requirements the company must implement over the coming months.
Apple said “Today’s decisions wrap us in red tape, slowing down Apple’s ability to innovate for users in Europe and forcing us to give away our new features for free to companies who don’t have to play by the same rules. It’s bad for our products and for our European users. We will continue to work with the European Commission to help them understand our concerns on behalf of our users”.
In regards to customer privacy, Apple is especially concerned with the requirements surrounding opening up access to the iOS notification system. The company indicated these measures would allow companies to suck up all user notifications in an unencrypted form to their servers, sidestepping all privacy protections Apple typically enforces.
The company is also upset at the “red tape” imposed on its business going forward. It said the decision allows officials and third-parties to get in the way of Apple releasing new products and features to customers. As well as frustrating the development process, it is essentially being forced to give away all of its innovations to others for free.
So far, the European Commission has only used these Digital Markets Act specification tools with Apple. That means only Apple is being forced to comply to this degree, while others can freely leech off of it. Apple does not believe these measures encourage competition and innovation.
Nevertheless, the company indicated it will comply with the law and said it will continue to work with the European Commission on these matters. The earlier announcement included commitments that Apple would start to roll out some of these interoperability changes as part of iOS 19.
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