Apple says EU's sweeping digital rules delay new features for Europeans
and seeks their repeal
[September 26, 2025] By
KELVIN CHAN
LONDON (AP) — Apple wants the European Union to repeal its digital
competition rule book, saying the regulations are cumbersome and are
delaying new features for Europeans such as live translation for AirPods.
The European Commission, the 27-nation bloc's executive branch, said
Thursday that's not going to happen.
“There is absolutely no intention from the Commission’s side to repeal
the DMA,” said Commission spokesman Thomas Regnier, referring to the
Digital Markets Act.
The iPhone maker outlined its complaints the day before in a response to
a consultation on the DMA, a sweeping set of rules designed to stop Big
Tech companies from dominating markets.
The company said "the DMA should be repealed" or scaled back, saying
it’s undermining innovation and eroding privacy and security.
Apple has long opposed the law and was one of the first companies to be
fined after the rules took effect last year, with a 500 million euro
($587 million) penalty in an app store case.
Apple said Europeans are being left behind the rest of the world because
it has to spend more time trying to figure out how to get new features
to comply with the rule book.
“The DMA requires Apple to make certain features work on non-Apple
products and apps before we can share them with our users,” the company
said in a blog post. “Unfortunately, that requires a lot of engineering
work, and it’s caused us to delay some new features in the EU."
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 For example, under the DMA, the live
translation feature that Apple unveiled earlier this month for use
with AirPods would also have to work with wireless earbuds from
other brands. The feature uses an iPhone's on-device AI to translate
when other languages are spoken around the person using them. Apple
says it needs more work to make sure conversations, which are
processed on the device, stay private if used with non-Apple
products.
Other features affected include iPhone Mirroring with Mac computers,
and Apple Maps' Visited Places and Preferred Routes.
Apple also said EU requirements to allow alternative app
marketplaces and payment systems onto iOS expose users to security
risks such as online scams and malware disguised as games.
And DMA provisions requiring Apple to comply with rivals' request to
access “user data and core technologies" creates “serious risk” for
its users, it said.
Apple said it's complying with the regulations but asked regulators
to take a closer look at how they're affecting Europeans.
At a regular European Commission press briefing in Brussels, Regnier
pushed back against Apple's complaints.
“Nothing in the DMA requires companies to lower their privacy
standards, their security standards," Regnier said. "To the
opposite, it’s just about giving our users more choice.”
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