Apple CEO Tim Cook to Meet EU Antitrust Chief Next Week

Apple CEO Tim Cook will meet the European Union's antitrust chief, Margrethe Vestager, next week amid a series of disputes with the organization (via Reuters).

tim cook europe privacy
Vestager is also set to meet the chief executives of Alphabet, Broadcom, and Nvidia, as well as senior executives from OpenAI. The meetings will take place in San Francisco and Palo Alto on Thursday and Friday next week, and will focus on European competition policy and digital regulation.

In December, Apple reportedly floated the ability for Apple Pay rivals to access the iPhone's NFC technology for contactless payments in the EU. The offer is designed to settle an ongoing antitrust dispute and avoid a potential fine. The European Commission is believed to be seeking feedback from rivals and customers before accepting the offer, so it is highly likely that this matter will be discussed.

Apple is also facing several other challenges in the EU that will almost certainly be the subject of discussion, such as a $14 billion tax dispute. Most strikingly, new EU rules such as the Digital Markets Act (DMA) designate major tech companies as "gatekeepers" and compel them to open up their various services and platforms to other companies and developers. The DMA is expected to force Apple to make significant changes to the way the App Store, FaceTime, and Siri work in Europe. For example, Apple will next year be obliged to allow users to install third-party app stores and sideload apps, as well as give developers the ability to promote their offers outside the ‌‌‌‌App Store‌‌‌‌ and use third-party payment systems.

Note: Due to the political or social nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Political News forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Popular Stories

iphone 16 display

iPhone 17's Scratch Resistant Anti-Reflective Display Coating Canceled

Monday April 28, 2025 12:48 pm PDT by
Apple may have canceled the super scratch resistant anti-reflective display coating that it planned to use for the iPhone 17 Pro models, according to a source with reliable information that spoke to MacRumors. Last spring, Weibo leaker Instant Digital suggested Apple was working on a new anti-reflective display layer that was more scratch resistant than the Ceramic Shield. We haven't heard...
iPhone 17 Air Pastel Feature

iPhone 17 Reaches Key Milestone Ahead of Mass Production

Monday April 28, 2025 8:44 am PDT by
Apple has completed Engineering Validation Testing (EVT) for at least one iPhone 17 model, according to a paywalled preview of an upcoming DigiTimes report. iPhone 17 Air mockup based on rumored design The EVT stage involves Apple testing iPhone 17 prototypes to ensure the hardware works as expected. There are still DVT (Design Validation Test) and PVT (Production Validation Test) stages to...
Beyond iPhone 13 Better Blue

20th Anniversary iPhone Likely to Be Made in China Due to 'Extraordinarily Complex' Design

Monday April 28, 2025 4:29 am PDT by
Apple will likely manufacture its 20th anniversary iPhone models in China, despite broader efforts to shift production to India, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. In 2027, Apple is planning a "major shake-up" for the iPhone lineup to mark two decades since the original model launched. Gurman's previous reporting indicates the company will introduce a foldable iPhone alongside a "bold"...
iphone 17 air iphone 16 pro

iPhone 17 Air USB-C Port May Have This Unusual Design Quirk

Wednesday April 30, 2025 3:59 am PDT by
Apple is preparing to launch a dramatically thinner iPhone this September, and if recent leaks are anything to go by, the so-called iPhone 17 Air could boast one of the most radical design shifts in recent years. iPhone 17 Air dummy model alongside iPhone 16 Pro (credit: AppleTrack) At just 5.5mm thick (excluding a slightly raised camera bump), the 6.6-inch iPhone 17 Air is expected to become ...
apple watch ultra yellow

What's Next for the Apple Watch Ultra 3 and Apple Watch SE 3

Friday April 25, 2025 2:44 pm PDT by
This week marks the 10th anniversary of the Apple Watch, which launched on April 24, 2015. Yesterday, we recapped features rumored for the Apple Watch Series 11, but since 2015, the Apple Watch has also branched out into the Apple Watch Ultra and the Apple Watch SE, so we thought we'd take a look at what's next for those product lines, too. 2025 Apple Watch Ultra 3 Apple didn't update the...
iPhone 17 Pro Blue Feature Tighter Crop

iPhone 17 Pro Launching Later This Year With These 13 New Features

Wednesday April 23, 2025 8:31 am PDT by
While the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are not expected to launch until September, there are already plenty of rumors about the devices. Below, we recap key changes rumored for the iPhone 17 Pro models as of April 2025: Aluminum frame: iPhone 17 Pro models are rumored to have an aluminum frame, whereas the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro models have a titanium frame, and the iPhone ...
iPhone 17 Pro on Desk Feature

All iPhone 17 Models Again Rumored to Feature 12GB of RAM

Tuesday April 29, 2025 3:36 am PDT by
All upcoming iPhone 17 models will come equipped with 12GB of RAM to support Apple Intelligence, according to the Weibo-based leaker Digital Chat Station. The claim from the Chinese leaker, who has sources within Apple's supply chain, comes a few days after industry analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said that the iPhone 17 Air, iPhone 17 Pro, and iPhone 17 Pro Max will all be equipped with 12GB of RAM. ...
AirPods Pro 3 Mock Feature

AirPods Pro 3 Just Months Away – Here's What We Know

Tuesday April 29, 2025 1:30 am PDT by
Despite being more than two years old, Apple's AirPods Pro 2 still dominate the premium wireless‑earbud space, thanks to a potent mix of top‑tier audio, class‑leading noise cancellation, and Apple's habit of delivering major new features through software updates. With AirPods Pro 3 widely expected to arrive in 2025, prospective buyers now face a familiar dilemma: snap up the proven...

Top Rated Comments

Xenc Avatar
17 months ago
You tell em, EU! ?
Score: 17 Votes (Like | Disagree)
ashdelacroix Avatar
17 months ago
America creates, the EU regulates. Sorry, America. I say this as a Brit who is happy to be out of the EU. This is an institution that, rightly, has concerns about global corporations with monopoly practices, but who will damage consumer choice and security by forcing my message product of choice to provide backdoors to competing message products that I do not wish to use but, tacitly, will have a share in.
Score: 17 Votes (Like | Disagree)
CarAnalogy Avatar
17 months ago

America creates, the EU regulates.
Honestly this doesn’t actually sound that bad. It’s well established that American corporations will take every inch and then some. That unbridled power does lead to innovation as well as abuse.

We have already seen tangible benefits from things like GDPR. Do we really want to just wait around for the American government to decide we deserve things like privacy laws and data portability?

Yes the EU goes too far, but American legislators go too far the other way. Look at the downright lies Elizabeth Warren is telling about Beeper Mini and Apple, somehow twisting it so that Apple is “blocking” Beeper’s services. I don’t think she’s stupid enough to actually believe that, which leaves lying as the most likely explanation.

It is interesting that Vestager is coming to the United States for this meeting. I would actually like to see more cooperation between American tech companies and the EU.

I know this post is just begging for downvotes, and I don’t like how it seems the EU is targeting “big tech” but so is the US government. At least most of the EU ministers seem to have some basic understanding of technology.

By the way for reference here is the Warren quote:


Green bubble texts are less secure. So why would Apple block a new app allowing Android users to chat with iPhone users on iMessage? Big Tech executives are protecting profits by squashing competitors.

Chatting between different platforms should be easy and secure.
I mean what is this? Anyone with any basic tech knowledge whatsoever understands that that is a deliberate twisting of the situation. This person is a US Senator. Someone should stop people with such power from saying such stupid things. Does she have no aids or advisors or does she just not listen to them or are they all lobbyists or what?

You’ll notice that the EU never said anything about Beeper.
Score: 12 Votes (Like | Disagree)
I7guy Avatar
17 months ago
Going to be an interesting meeting. Would like to be a fly on the wall.
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
WarmWinterHat Avatar
17 months ago

America creates, the EU regulates. Sorry, America. I say this as a Brit who is happy to be out of the EU. This is an institution that, rightly, has concerns about global corporations with monopoly practices, but who will damage consumer choice and security by forcing my message product of choice to provide backdoors to competing message products that I do not wish to use but, tacitly, will have a share in.
I like that idea, since our Congress is too spineless and paid-off to do anything about US industries and tech companies.

We (US) have abdicated our responsibility to the populace.
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
wikiverse Avatar
17 months ago

Developers already have the ability to promote their offers outside the App Store. iPhones and iPads have internet connections and allow app users to access information via the web/social media/email/texts/push notifications etc. The idea that iOS/iPadOS users are limited to the information they see in the App Store is ludicrous.
I think you misunderstood the article

"... install third-party app stores and sideload apps ('https://www.macrumors.com/2023/04/17/app-sideloading-support-coming-ios-17/'), as well as give developers the ability to promote their offers outside the ‌‌‌App Store‌‌‌ and use third-party payment systems" within the app itself.

This is what the EU seeks to change.
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)