Stop us if you’ve heard this one before. Apple is preparing a software update for an iPhone from 2020 to address a years-old health complaint only raised in one market.
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Earlier this month Apple unveiled iOS 26 and the host of changes it introduces. But now the company has confirmed that, due to regulatory concerns, iOS 26 will ship without certain features enabled for EU users.
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Apple was recently hit with a $570 million fine from the EU for alleged violations of the Digital Markets Act (DMA). The company has said it will appeal the EU’s decision, and now per a new report, we may know some of the arguments Apple’s lawyers plan to use in the case.
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Current tensions around US trade policy may be helping delay a coming EU penalty against Apple, according to a new Wall Street Journal report. Here are the details.
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iOS 18.4 includes a variety of big and small upgrades for iPhone users, but if you’re in the EU, there’s one especially huge bonus change: Apple Intelligence is now fully supported for EU users.
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Apple is reportedly about to face a fine from the EU over alleged violations of the DMA (Digital Markets Act). The move would mark the first major act by the EU against Apple since President Trump took office and warned against EU interference with US companies.
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Spotify CEO Daniel Ek is not very happy about Apple’s current compliance with the EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA). In a new interview with Bloomberg, he criticizes Apple and calls on EU regulators to bring swift action against the company.
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The EU is not exactly on the best of terms with several US tech giants, including Apple, and now the newly inaugurated President Trump is speaking up about it.
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Apple continues to go back and forth with the EU about its regulatory compliance. And in a new document recently released by the company, it announced plans to enable setting default apps for navigation and translation soon. That means users will be able to finally make Google Maps default.
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Tim Cook’s job as CEO covers a number of roles and responsibilities. One of them involves maintaining relationships with political powers. And according to Donald Trump, he and Cook recently had a conversation about the EU’s recent rulings against Apple.
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EU users hoping for good news on the Apple Intelligence front—look away. Apple’s ongoing dispute with EU governing authorities over a variety of issues, including AI, has found its latest story. Per Politico, a new AI pact put forward by the EU has gained prominent signatories like OpenAI, Google, and Microsoft. But Apple is a holdout.
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Apple Intelligence is one of the biggest tentpoles of this fall’s new OS updates. The AI features in iOS 18.1, iPadOS 18.1, and macOS Sequoia will debut only for users with compatible devices set to U.S. English.
However, there’s a big asterisk: users in the EU won’t get Apple Intelligence. No matter their device’s language setting, Apple has said it is blocking AI features in the EU until further notice.
But there’s new evidence that indicates this exclusion won’t apply to all platforms. Instead, Apple Intelligence might be supported in the EU on the Mac only.
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Yesterday we learned that Spotify decided to pass on Apple’s new EU terms that would allow it to use alternative payment methods due to the Core Technology Fee. Instead, it submitted an app update with pricing info and details on how to subscribe outside of the App Store without giving users a link. Now Spotify says Apple has unjustly blocked the update and again “defied the European Commission”.
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After a whirlwind of events, Epic Games says Apple has reinstated their App Store developer account. The move clears the way for Epic to bring its Epic Games Store to the EU, avoiding the App Store structure altogether. The turnaround is somewhat unexpected as Apple seemed to stand by its decision to revoke Epic’s developer account on Wednesday.
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The Digital Markets Act (DMA) legislation could force Apple to open up iPhone to third-party app stores in the EU next year and Setapp says it will be ready if that happens. The company known for its popular app subscription service has officially announced its Setapp mobile app store and is taking applications from developers who would like to join in.
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The European Union is planning a new law to address what it describes as ‘unfair contractual clauses’ following a complaint by Spotify, Deezer and others.
While Apple was not specifically named in the complaint, Spotify considers it unfair that Apple takes a 15% cut of in-app subscription purchases, arguing that this makes it less competitive against Apple Music …
Apple, which was accused by the Italian government of failing to declare more than $1.3B of income when paying corporation tax in the country, has now agreed to pay the full €318M ($347M) claimed by the Italian tax office. The company has 16 Apple Stores in Italy.
Apple was accused of funnelling profits from Italian sales through its Irish subsidiary in order to benefit from the lower tax rate the company had agreed there. (Those tax arrangements are the subject of a separate EU investigation.)
La Repubblica (via The Local) reports Apple Italia was listed as a “consultant” for Apple Ireland, enabling the company to book profits through Ireland, paying just 2.5% tax under the terms of an agreement said to have first been reached with Steve Jobs back in the 1980s …
Europe is an odd place to live. In some respects, it acts like one big country (you can drive across it without ever seeing a border or showing a passport), while in other ways it is very definitely individual countries – like paying roaming charges outside your own country for calls, text messages and data.
We’ve been promised an end to roaming charges for what feels like forever, and the good news is that after years of discussion and debate, the European Union finally agreed to a date. The bad news is that the date isn’t until June 15th 2017.
It means that from 15 June 2017 you can use your mobile device when travelling in the EU paying the same prices as at home (domestic prices). For instance, if you pay for a monthly volume of minutes, SMS and data in your country, any voice call, SMS and data session you make while travelling abroad in the EU will be deducted from that volume as if you were at home, with no extra charges. This means the end of roaming charges as Europeans experience them today in their daily life.
The EU has gradually imposed caps on roaming charges, and the current ones of €0.19/minute for calls and €0.06 per text message aren’t too bad, but €0.20/MB for data is the killer, making it easy to rack up a hefty bill with perfectly normal use of a smartphone in other European countries.
The EU has also agreed to net neutrality rules, though watered down with exceptions for ‘innovative’ services that require higher than usual bandwidth – like Netflix. The EU says that these services can be prioritized so long as this doesn’t harm other services, but as everyone would otherwise get the fastest speed for everything, this provision doesn’t appear to have any real meaning.
Irish Examiner got an inside look at Apple’s EU headquarters in Cork along with some interviews with employees there. The campus holds around 4,000 Apple employees that the report points out span across support services, distribution, mapping and manufacturing.
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New data from Kantar Worldpanel ComTech shows that smartphone users ditching Android devices in recent months helped drive iOS growth across the EU. The data tracked the EU’s biggest markets in 1Q15— Great Britain, Germany, France, Italy, and Spain— and shows iOS grew 1.8 percentage points from last year to 20.3% market share this year. That includes around 32.4% of new Apple customers switching from an Android device, according to the report, while Android lost 3.1 percentage points during the quarter:
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Last week, we reported on a flaw with the EU’s new no-questions-asked 14-day refund policy that meant customers could effectively get paid apps for free, as refunding the app does not delete it from customers’ devices.
In response, Apple has adjusted its App Store purchases slightly for customers who have an excessive number of refunds on file. This means people with a track record of refunding purchase effectively lose the right to refund their purchase.
A week ago, Apple introduced 14-day no-questions-asked refunds in the EU for iTunes Store and App Store content. This means that, without the need for a reason, any Apple customer in Europe can get their money back for (primarily) app purchases in 5-7 days time. That’s how it is described, at least.
This opens up some possibilities for abuse. For instance, if you complete a game within two weeks, then you can get your money back and end up paying nothing. As a developer, I tested this out myself. It turns out there is an even bigger problem. At least, right now, when the refund is processed, the app continues to work. You get the app for free, forever.
Apple has recently introduced a new 14-day no questions asked return policy for iTunes, App Store and iBooks purchases in Europe including the UK, Germany, Italy, France, and many other EU countries.
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Before the Apple and Beats marriage can really be official, the two companies must first gain regulatory approval from various governing bodies where the companies conduct business. Apple included the following expectation in its official press release announcing the deal: Subject to regulatory approvals, Apple expects the transaction to close in fiscal Q4.
For Apple, having regulatory approval and closing the transaction by the end of fiscal Q4 means it expects everything to be in order by the end of September. According to a Reuters report, regulators in the European Union will announce their decision on the deal by July 30th next month.
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