Apple threatens to stop selling iPhones in the EU

[ergophobe]

In the latest of a series of clashes with Brussels, the iPhone maker said the Digital Markets Act was leading to a worse experience for Apple users, exposing them to security risks, and disrupting the seamless way Apple products work together.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/sep/25/apple-calls-for-changes-to-anti-monopoly-laws-and-says-it-may-stop-shipping-to-the-eu

Analysis:

Apple claims that by blocking Europeans from using their Apple devices with third-party software and hardware, they are protecting their customers' privacy.

This is nonsense. While it's true that Apple protects its customers' privacy from some external threats, Apple also spies on its users, without their consent, in order to gather behavioral data that's used for Apple's ad-targeting system. When this came to light, Apple lied to its customers about it. [link]

Apple has used its exclusive control over which software can operate on its devices to expose every Chinese iOS user to unrestricted government surveillance. Apple removed all working VPNs from its Chinese app store.

The company then backdoored its iCloud backup for unrestricted access by Chinese authorities [link].

Then they removed the ability to anonymously share messages via Airdrop to curb the tool's usage to spread opposition messages during a wave of mass protests in China (they took away this functionality for every Airdrop user in the world) [link]

https://pluralistic.net/2025/09/26/empty-threats/

[rcjordan]

Do it, Apple.  I'll take bets that the EU will recant in less than a year.

[ergophobe]

Normally, Apple is treated like this shining beacon of light and goodness on the hill. But I wonder if it will finally be seen more like Google, Microsoft and Amazon (as it should be). If so the anti-American sentiment might make a lot of European iPhone users a lot more tolerant of measures against Apple than they might have been 9 months ago...