Apple’s hired legal mouthpiece, Daniel Beard, told judges that the DMA “imposes hugely onerous and intrusive burdens” which somehow violate the company’s divine right to squeeze European customers without interference.
The DMA, passed in 2023, was meant to clip the wings of the Silicon Valley overlords by forcing them to open up their platforms to rivals. But predictably, Job’s Mob is claiming that making its iPhones work nicely with non-Apple gear endangers “privacy, security, and intellectual property.” In Cupertino logic, anything that lets people use something not stamped with an apple logo must be unsafe.
EU Commission lawyer Paul-John Loewenthal had none of it. He told the court that Apple’s “absolute control” of the iPhone gives it “supernormal profits in complementary markets where competitors are handicapped.”
He added pointedly, “Only Apple has the keys to that walled garden. It decides who gets in and who can offer their products and services to iPhone users.”
Apple’s hissy fit hits three fronts. First, it doesn’t want to make its iPhones play nice with rival hardware, like earbuds or smartwatches. Second, it insists the App Store isn’t really a single platform under the law, even though it keeps raking in billions in “service fees.” Third, it’s furious that the EU dared look into iMessage, even if regulators later decided it didn’t need to be covered.
Apple's already been walloped with a €500 million fine for DMA violations and a separate €1.8 billion penalty for strangling music apps that tried to point users outside its store. And let’s not forget the €13 billion in back taxes it was ordered to pay Ireland, which it still pretends it doesn’t owe.
While over the pond Apple can get away with murder, in Brussels, patience has worn thin. The EU’s lawyers are effectively saying what everyone already knows: Apple’s “privacy and security” mantra is just marketing fluff for “we like our monopoly, thanks.”
While Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Meta, ByteDance, and Booking.com are all grumbling under the same rules, none have mounted a tantrum quite as grand as Apple’s. For a company that markets itself as different, it sure spends a lot of time demanding special treatment.
