The EU is asking developers about the impact of Apple's decision to disable PWAs in the EU, seen as a precursor to a formal investigation into the company
Financial TimesJavier Espinoza
Context & Ripple Effects
The developer outreach places PWA access alongside a broader EU examination of how Apple’s platform rules affect developers. Related coverage later records a preliminary finding on Apple’s anti-steering rules and a separate inquiry into whether its developer fees meet EU requirements.
That makes the PWA change consequential beyond a product feature: it tests whether a platform can alter a web-based route to users while remaining within the EU’s developer-access framework.
First-order effects
EU officials gain developer evidence on the practical effects of Apple removing PWA support in the region, potentially informing a formal case.
Developers that used PWAs as an iPhone distribution channel must account for the loss of that route while Apple faces added regulatory scrutiny.
Developers may treat web delivery and App Store distribution less as interchangeable options if platform-level browser changes can materially alter their access to users.
Third-order effects
If regulators connect PWA access to effective contestability, compliance assessments could increasingly evaluate platform rules across native-app and web interfaces rather than treating them separately.
The pattern points to more evidence-led oversight of gatekeeper policies, with developer questionnaires—including a later survey focused on Core Technology Fee concerns—becoming a recurring enforcement tool.
The trend: EU gatekeeper enforcement is expanding from app-store terms to the technical interfaces that determine how developers can reach mobile users.
Happy to hear this is coming under official scrutiny, though I worry that with the speed these things move we'll go through a year or more of developers being hurt by Apple's malicious compliance before things can be set right. — https://www.theverge.com/...
Many folks on here think of me as an Apple hater. Nothing could be further from the truth. There is no other group of designers and engineers on earth who can build as great products as Apple when they are directed towards that end. The woes begin when they are directed not to.
Home Screen Advantage: Decoding Apple's Desperate Ploy To Scuttle PWAs https://infrequently.org/... - all the background and links to citations, on the latest assault on the open web by a massive profit machine that seems to believe it is answerable to no-one.
The EC trapped by its own attempts at software design rather than saying what it wanted. It said to “gatekeepers” to make things more open and maintain security and other attributes. And now acts surprised they get this. (via FT where EC always anonymously and unaccountably... [i…
The unprecedented swiftness of the EC's action regarding iOS web apps suggests they've correctly interpreted Apple's overall conduct as a middle finger. They can do something about web apps, but at the moment they're unable to break the app distribution monopoly. So Apple wins.
The EC can't do much about Apple's EU app rules but at least they're now looking into this clearly anticompetitive, anti-consumer and anti-innovation move by Apple concerning web apps.