The Apple App Store app on a smartphone.
(Bloomberg) — Apple Inc. has asked European Union antitrust watchdogs to scrap regulations intended to protect digital consumers, arguing they expose users to privacy risks and threaten to undermine innovation.
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The US company reiterated its opposition Thursday to the sweeping rules, which the EU implemented last year to protect consumers and ensure that big tech firms don’t abuse their dominance of internet spheres from mobile apps to search engines. In a blog post, the iPhone maker stressed it was complying but urged regulators to look more closely at their impact on people and companies across the region. Apple went further in remarks submitted separately to the European Commission, asking the watchdog to repeal or scale back the regulation.
Apple has previously made clear its opposition to the Digital Markets Act, which lays out a series of dos and don’ts for the likes of Alphabet Inc.’s Google Search, Apple’s Safari, Amazon.com Inc. and Meta Platforms Inc.’s Facebook among others. It’s intended to head off competition violations by tech firms before they take root, and fines for violations can be as much as 10% of global revenue — or as much as 20% in the case of repeated breaches.
“It’s become clear that the DMA is leading to a worse experience for Apple users in the EU. It’s exposing them to new risks, and disrupting the simple, seamless way their Apple products work together,” Apple wrote in its blog post. “The DMA also isn’t helping European markets. Instead of competing by innovating, already successful companies are twisting the law to suit their own agendas — to collect more data from EU citizens, or to get Apple’s technology for free.”
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Apple singled out the danger to users from being forced to host external payments services and allow sideloading — or the downloading of apps from third-party marketplaces. That may expose iPhone users to malware or scams, it argued. Allowing other companies to request user data — as stipulated under the Act — may compromise sensitive information, it said.
The commission said it will not repeal or change the DMA in response to Apple’s complaints.
“Apple has contested every little bit of the DMA since its entry into application,” the European Commission’s spokesperson for tech sovereignty, Thomas Regnier, told reporters on Thursday. “We get it that companies want to defend their profits at all costs, but that’s not what the DMA is about — the DMA is about giving consumers in the EU more choice and giving our businesses the possibility to compete fairly.”