Apple Being Warned by the EU to Make the iPhone OS Available to Other Technologies

Nitin Konde, Varun Bhardwaj

Sep 20, 2024 — 2 min read

Apple warned by EU to make the iPhone OS available

In order to avoid incurring substantial fines in accordance with its hallmark digital antitrust regulations, the European Union has issued a warning to Apple Inc., urging the company to make its highly guarded operating systems for the iPhone and iPad easily accessible to competing technology.

In accordance with the Digital Markets Act of the European Union, the watchdogs of the EU have announced that the company based in Cupertino, California is required to comply with stringent new restrictions regarding the integration of operating systems with other technologies. Six months were given to the corporation by the authority based in Brussels to comply, or else they would be subject to potential penalties in the future.

EU Aims to Compel Apple to Re-Engineer Its Services

Despite the fact that the announcement is not yet an official inquiry, the European Union intends to force Apple to redesign its offerings in order to grant competitors an access to the operating systems of the iPhone and iPad.

According to a statement released by the Deputy Commissioner for Competition of the European Union, Margrethe Vestager, it marks the first time that specification proceedings under the DMA have been used to steer Apple towards effective compliance with its interoperability requirements. An significant factor in this is the presence of effective interoperability, which can be seen, for instance, in smartphones and the operating systems that they use.

Reasons and Repercussions if Apple Doesn’t Agree to the Norm

Assuring that other developers have access to essential Apple capabilities, such as Siri voice commands and the payments chip, is one of the goals of the Digital Markets Act (DMA).

In the case that Apple does not comply with the DMA, the European Union may decide to initiate a formal investigation at a later time. This might ultimately result in significant fines of up to 10% of the company's yearly sales worldwide. It has already been subjected to a parallel inquiry examining the restrictions that it has established for developers within its App Store, which may also result in significant penalties.

The latest version of Apple's flagship gadget, the iPhone 16, was introduced earlier this month. The company is hoping that it will be able to attract customers with relatively minor hardware enhancements and artificial intelligence technology that is still in the development stage.

On the other hand, the American company announced in June that certain services, such as Apple Intelligence, iPhone Mirroring, and SharePlay Screen Sharing, would not be available in the European Union. This was owing to the criteria that the DMA places on OS systems in order for them to be compatible with third-party applications.