European Union officials are taking new steps to ensure that Apple Inc. complies with the bloc’s DMA tech industry regulation.
The European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, announced the initiative today.
The DMA is a piece of legislation designed to prevent tech giants from engaging in harmful business practices. Many of the law’s provisions apply not at the company level, but rather only to specific products that the EU designates as core platform services. Apple’s iOS, App Store and Safari received that designation last September while iPadOS was added to the list this past April.
The first focus of the DMA compliance initiative announced today is iOS. In particular, the EU will scrutinize a set of iOS features that consumers use to link their iPhones with connected devices. Officials will inform Apple how to implement those features in a DMA-compliant manner.
The European Commission detailed that the connected device capabilities being scrutinized relate to “notifications, device pairing and connectivity.” Those use cases are also at the center of an antitrust lawsuit that the Justice Department brought against Apple earlier this year. The lawsuit mentions the three use cases in the context of the Apple Watch, which raises the possibility that the EU’s new regulatory initiative may likewise focus on the smartwatch series.
Apple enables users to read notifications sent to their iPhones on an Apple Watch. The same integration is not available for third-party smartwatches, which the Justice Department says harms market competition.
Device pairing and connectivity, the two other use cases that EU officials will prioritize, are likewise discussed in the Justice Department’s lawsuit. The complaint takes issue with the fact that iPhones can more reliably connect to the Apple Watch than to third-party smartwatches over Bluetooth. Apple Watch’s capabilities when it’s not actively paired, or connected, to an iPhone are likewise a focus of the lawsuit.
Alongside connected device integrations, the European Commission’s new DMA compliance initiative focuses on so-called interoperability requests. Those are requests in which iOS and iPad app developers ask Apple for broader access to its operating systems or the underlying hardware. Regulators will help the iPhone maker ensure that the “request process is transparent, timely, and fair.”
“Today is the first time we use specification proceedings under the DMA to guide Apple towards effective compliance with its interoperability obligations through constructive dialogue,” said European Commission Executive Vice President Margrethe Vestager. “We are focused on ensuring fair and open digital markets.”
The European Commission expects to complete the initiative within six months. It also plans to publish a summary of its findings about Apple’s DMA adherence and the steps that may be necessary to address regulatory compliance issues.