Apple says the DMA exposes users to new risks, reduces choice by making iOS resemble Android, and creates unfair competition by not applying to Samsung

At Apple, we've always focused on creating technology that empowers people and enriches their lives. We design our products to be intuitive …

Apple 2025-09-25

Context & Ripple Effects

Apple’s position extends its earlier effort to implement App Store and iOS changes while retaining maximum platform control under the DMA, as covered in Apple’s initial DMA compliance design.

The company is now framing the DMA not only as a compliance burden but as a security, product-differentiation, and competitive-neutrality issue. That argument later carried into Apple’s General Court challenge to the DMA.

First-order effects

Apple publicly ties DMA compliance to increased user-risk concerns and to a potential loss of iOS differentiation relative to Android.
The company puts Samsung’s non-application under the DMA at the center of its argument that the rules create uneven competitive conditions among handset platforms.

Second-order effects

DMA implementation debates are likely to focus more sharply on whether interoperability and alternative distribution can be delivered without weakening platform security controls—an issue Apple had already raised around EU sideloading security concerns.
Samsung’s regulatory treatment becomes a more salient comparison point for Apple and other parties contesting whether the DMA’s obligations are applied competitively neutrally.

Third-order effects

The dispute reflects a durable fault line in platform regulation: rules designed to open ecosystems can also pressure the product and security distinctions through which tightly controlled platforms compete.
If these arguments gain traction, DMA enforcement and litigation may increasingly turn on platform-specific technical safeguards and the consistency of gatekeeper designations, rather than access requirements alone.

The trend: European platform regulation is moving from abstract openness mandates toward contested questions of security, product design, and equal treatment across competing ecosystems.

Discussion

@stroughtonsmith … Steve Troughton-Smith on mastodon
As a European, the changes in the DMA have had zero negative impact upon me, or indeed anybody I know, except for the ways in which Apple chooses to selectively apply the laws to punish its users and developers. — Where Apple complains about ‘developers accessing notifications’…
@khaost@mastodon.tz.is Khaos Tian on mastodon
Apple is getting a taste of its own medicine 🙃 https://www.apple.com/... [image]
r/apple r on reddit
The Digital Markets Act's impacts on EU users
MLex MLex on x
Apple says EU's DMA has degraded user experience in the bloc
@aaronp613 Aaron on x
Apple has just released a scathing press release about the EU's Digital Markets Act It discusses feature delays, restrictions, and even hits back at AltStore for distributing a pornography app [image]
@fbermingham Finbarr Bermingham on bluesky
Apple has demanded Brussels scrap its landmark Big Tech legislation, marking a step up in US tech giants' fight against European oversight.
@hidde.blog Hidde on bluesky
Apple wants EU to scrap digital competition law to “avoid worse user experience”. I didn't realise Liquid Glass was invented in Brussels — www.france24.com/en/live-news...
@margotdor @margotdor on bluesky
A US corporation asks EU lawmakers to “repeal” a legislative text (which would be adverse to “users'interests"). — How is this even conceivable and how come it's just another piece of news? [embedded post]
@andrewstroehlein Andrew Stroehlein on bluesky
Whatever the merits of the arguments, the threat seems empty - along the lines of, “I'll hit myself in the head with this hammer if you don't do what I want” — www.theguardian.com/technology/ 2...
@gateklons @gateklons on bluesky
Quite a brazen thing for a Apple to say to the EU/EC. But the DMA offending Apple's authoritarian instincts is precisely why the Commission should press on with enforcement as fast as they can. Otherwise Apple would be proven right: the DMA is ineffective. — www.france24.com/…
@carnage4life Dare Obasanjo on bluesky
Apple has asked the EU to repeal the Digital Markets Act because Apple users are getting a worse experience because Apple refuses to build features in a way that allows other companies to provide core iPhone features. — Good luck with that, Tim Apple.
@Wen@mastodon.scot Wen on mastodon
Apple winges but I can't imagine they will withdraw from one of their most lucrative markets. — https://www.theguardian.com/ ... I like mine but would not hesitate to abandon their products when I refresh them. A complete shift to #Fairphone and #Linux would be refreshing as …
@kjhealy@mastodon.social Kieran Healy on mastodon
An instructive contrast here. When it comes to EU policies it thinks are bad for business, Apple has no trouble making full-throated, detailed, public statements like this, because it—correctly!—judges it's dealing with a government that can be pressured in a conventional way. …
@rileytestut@mastodon.social @rileytestut@mastodon.social on mastodon
IMO if Apple's worst, most egregious example of a harmful and dangerous app that's now available through sideloading is *checks notes* porn...I think we're doing OK https://www.apple.com/... [image]
r/stupidpol r on reddit
Apple threatens EU into repealing anti-monopoly legislation or face the withdrawal of apple from their market
r/BuyFromEU r on reddit
Apple calls for changes to anti-monopoly laws and says it may stop shipping to the EU
r/europe r on reddit
Apple calls for changes to anti-monopoly laws and says it may stop shipping to the EU
r/eutech r on reddit
Apple asks EU to scrap landmark digital competition law

Chronicles