Apple Withholds AI, Other Offerings From EU amid DMA Conflicts

Apple will reportedly withhold several new technologies from consumers in the European Union (EU).

The company will block the release of Apple Intelligence, iPhone Mirroring and SharePlay Screen Sharing in the EU this year, citing the Digital Markets Act (DMA) as the reason, Bloomberg reported Friday (June 21).

“We are concerned that the interoperability requirements of the DMA could force us to compromise the integrity of our products in ways that risk user privacy and data security,” Apple said in the report.

The DMA imposes a set of rules on Big Tech platforms, prohibiting them from favoring their own services over those of competitors, combining personal data across different services, using data collected from third-party merchants to compete against them, and requiring them to allow users to download apps from rival platforms, according to the report.

In response to Apple’s decision, the European Commission said, per the report: “Gatekeepers are welcome to offer their services in Europe, provided that they comply with our rules aimed at ensuring fair competition.”

Apple Intelligence, which was recently highlighted at the company’s Worldwide Developers Conference, is an artificial intelligence (AI) technology that helps summarize text, create original images and retrieve relevant data when needed, per the report.

The company’s decision to halt the rollout of these new features in the EU means that consumers in all 27 EU nations will not have access to these technologies for now, the report said.

The software is set to launch elsewhere this fall and will only be available on a subset of Apple devices and in American English, per the report.

Apart from withholding new technologies, Apple has also been involved in a dispute with the EU over its alleged market abuses, according to the report. Along with Google and Meta Platforms, Apple is under investigation for ignoring the Digital Markets Act.

As part of this investigation, EU regulators are expected to issue a formal warning to Apple for allegedly blocking apps from directing users to cheaper subscription deals on the web, the report said.

Earlier this year, Apple was fined 1.8 billion euros ($1.9 billion) by Brussels regulators under traditional antitrust law.