Apple says EU’s sweeping digital rules delay new features for Europeans and seeks their repeal

LONDON (AP) – Apple wants the European Union to repeal its digital competition rule book, saying the regulations are cumbersome and are delaying new features for Europeans such as live translation for AirPods.

The European Commission, the 27-nation bloc’s executive branch, said Thursday that’s not going to happen.

“There is absolutely no intention from the Commission’s side to repeal the DMA,” said Commission spokesman Thomas Regnier, referring to the Digital Markets Act.

The iPhone maker outlined its complaints the day before in a response to a consultation on the DMA, a sweeping set of rules designed to stop Big Tech companies from dominating markets.

The company said “the DMA should be repealed” or scaled back, saying it’s undermining innovation and eroding privacy and security.

Apple has long opposed the law and was one of the first companies to be fined after the rules took effect last year, with a 500 million euro ($587 million) penalty in an app store case.

Apple said Europeans are being left behind the rest of the world because it has to spend more time trying to figure out how to get new features to comply with the rule book.

“The DMA requires Apple to make certain features work on non-Apple products and apps before we can share them with our users,” the company said in a blog post. “Unfortunately, that requires a lot of engineering work, and it’s caused us to delay some new features in the EU.”

For example, under the DMA, the live translation feature that Apple unveiled earlier this month for use with AirPods would also have to work with wireless earbuds from other brands. The feature uses an iPhone’s on-device AI to translate when other languages are spoken around the person using them. Apple says it needs more work to make sure conversations, which are processed on the device, stay private if used with non-Apple products.

Other features affected include iPhone Mirroring with Mac computers, and Apple Maps’ Visited Places and Preferred Routes.

Apple also said EU requirements to allow alternative app marketplaces and payment systems onto iOS expose users to security risks such as online scams and malware disguised as games.

And DMA provisions requiring Apple to comply with rivals’ request to access “user data and core technologies” creates “serious risk” for its users, it said.

Apple said it’s complying with the regulations but asked regulators to take a closer look at how they’re affecting Europeans.

At a regular European Commission press briefing in Brussels, Regnier pushed back against Apple’s complaints.

“Nothing in the DMA requires companies to lower their privacy standards, their security standards,” Regnier said. “To the opposite, it’s just about giving our users more choice.”