Apple Inc has been warned by the EU to open up its highly guarded iPhone and iPad operating systems to rival technologies, or eventually risk significant fines under its flagship digital antitrust rules.
EU watchdogs announced under the bloc’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) that Apple must step into line with new laws on making operating systems fully functional with other technologies. The Brussels-based authority gave the company six months to comply, or face the threat of penalties.
While the announcement is a step shy of a formal investigation, the EU aims to compel Apple to re-engineer its services to allow rival companies to access the iPhone’s and iPad’s operating systems.
Photo: Bloomberg
“Today is the first time we use specification proceedings under the DMA to guide Apple towards effective compliance with its interoperability obligations,” EU Commissioner for Competition Margrethe Vestager said in a statement.
“Effective interoperability, for example with smartphones and their operating systems, plays an important role in this,” she said.
Cupertino, California-based Apple said it has created ways for developers to request additional interoperability with iPhone and iPad operating systems, while protecting users’ security. Undermining protections built into its systems would put European consumers at risk, the company added.
Apple shares rose 1.6 percent to US$224.25 in premarket trading. The EU announcement confirms an earlier report by Bloomberg.
One of the aims of the DMA is to ensure that other developers can gain access to key Apple features, such as its Siri voice commands and its payments chip.
The EU might later decide to launch a formal probe if Apple does not step into line with the DMA, which could eventually lead to hefty fines of up to 10 percent of global annual sales. It is already facing a parallel investigation into its App Store rules for developers, which could also lead to fines.
Earlier this month, Apple announced the latest version of its flagship device, the iPhone 16, betting it can entice consumers with modest hardware upgrades and artificial intelligence technology that is still on the horizon.
However, in June, the US giant said that certain features — including Apple Intelligence, iPhone mirroring and SharePlay screen sharing — would be held back from the EU, due to the DMA’s requirements on operating systems to work with third-party apps.
In a small town in Paraguay, a showdown is brewing between traditional producers of yerba mate, a bitter herbal tea popular across South America, and miners of a shinier treasure: gold. A rush for the precious metal is pitting mate growers and indigenous groups against the expanding operations of small-scale miners who, until recently, were their neighbors, not nemeses. “They [the miners] have destroyed everything... The canals, springs, swamps,” said Vidal Britez, president of the Yerba Mate Producers’ Association of the town of Paso Yobai, about 210km east of capital Asuncion. “You can see the pollution from the dead fish.
MULTIFACETED: A task force has analyzed possible scenarios and created responses to assist domestic industries in dealing with US tariffs, the economics minister said The Executive Yuan is tomorrow to announce countermeasures to US President Donald Trump’s planned reciprocal tariffs, although the details of the plan would not be made public until Monday next week, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. The Cabinet established an economic and trade task force in November last year to deal with US trade and tariff related issues, Kuo told reporters outside the legislature in Taipei. The task force has been analyzing and evaluating all kinds of scenarios to identify suitable responses and determine how best to assist domestic industries in managing the effects of Trump’s tariffs, he
ASML Holding NV, the sole producer of the most advanced machines used in semiconductor manufacturing, said geopolitical tensions are harming innovation a day after US President Donald Trump levied massive tariffs that promise to disrupt trade flows across the entire world. “Our industry has been built basically on the ability of people to work together, to innovate together,” ASML chief executive officer Christophe Fouquet said in a recorded message at a Thursday industry event in the Netherlands. Export controls and increasing geopolitical tensions challenge that collaboration, he said, without specifically addressing the new US tariffs. Tech executives in the EU, which is
TIGHT-LIPPED: UMC said it had no merger plans at the moment, after Nikkei Asia reported that the firm and GlobalFoundries were considering restarting merger talks United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電), the world’s No. 4 contract chipmaker, yesterday launched a new US$5 billion 12-inch chip factory in Singapore as part of its latest effort to diversify its manufacturing footprint amid growing geopolitical risks. The new factory, adjacent to UMC’s existing Singapore fab in the Pasir Res Wafer Fab Park, is scheduled to enter volume production next year, utilizing mature 22-nanometer and 28-nanometer process technologies, UMC said in a statement. The company plans to invest US$5 billion during the first phase of the new fab, which would have an installed capacity of 30,000 12-inch wafers per month, it said. The
RSS