Apple sharply criticized the European Union (EU) regulations represented by the Digital Markets Act (DMA). It also argued that other countries should not adopt regulations similar to the DMA.
Greg Joswiak, Apple's senior vice president of worldwide marketing, recently said the EU's rules threaten Apple's core technologies and ecosystem and negatively affect user experience and privacy, criticizing the European Commission.
The DMA is the EU's big tech regulation law that took effect in Mar. last year. In Mar., the European Commission ordered Apple to improve "interoperability" so that the iPhone and iPad, among others, can be compatible with rival products. In Apr., it also imposed a penalty surcharge of 500 million euros (about 800 billion won), saying Apple's App Store policy violated the DMA. Apple requested an exemption from applying "interoperability," but the commission rejected Apple's request on the 19th.
Joswiak said European regulators are interpreting the DMA radically, causing unintended side effects, and argued that the interoperability requirement in particular fundamentally attacks the "magic of the Apple experience," where hardware, software, and services are integrated.
He explained that Apple has long supported thousands of tools and APIs (application programming interfaces) so that products and apps, including the iPhone, can be tightly integrated to deliver an optimal experience, and that it has designed core device elements such as the camera, microphone, and location services to be interoperable, building an ecosystem that lets developers and users benefit.
He went on to argue that the EU rules require new features to work exactly the same as rival products as soon as they launch, which not only increases technical complexity but in some cases is simply impossible and would only be possible by sacrificing the user experience.
He also said European users are being harmed by such rules, noting that features like iPhone Mirroring (which lets you display your iPhone screen on a Mac), released last year, are not offered in the EU unlike in other regions, fueling user dissatisfaction.
Joswiak stressed that EU regulations also threaten innovation and intellectual property (IP), and that if integrated hardware-and-software features like AirPods Pairing, which consolidates AirPods with other devices, must be shared with competitors, launches could be delayed or competitive advantages lost.
He added, above all, that he wanted to point out these rules target only Apple, emphasizing that they do not apply to Samsung or Chinese corporations, or even to other U.S. tech companies, and that this is by no means a level playing field.
He also voiced concerns about user privacy and security. Joswiak said the EU is asking for all Wi-Fi connection histories and notification contents accessed by users to be provided, adding that this could expose even sensitive medical information. He added that Apple has prioritized protecting user data, but the EU rules are threatening that.
Joswiak emphasized that if governments are considering EU-like regulations, they should closely examine the actual risks that emerge, adding that the EU rules are causing three serious problems: user feature restrictions, diminished innovation, and the risk of exposing sensitive data.