European Union

Despite pushback from Apple, the European Parliament in January voted overwhelmingly for new rules to establish a common charging standard for mobile device makers across the European Union. This article explores what form the EU laws might ultimately take and how they could affect Apple device users in Europe and elsewhere. What Exactly is the EU Calling For? To reduce cost, electronic...

The European Commission is planning to charge Apple with anticompetitive behavior with regards to Apple Pay, since it is the only payment service that can use the iPhone's Near-Field Communication (NFC) chip, Reuters reports. EU antitrust investigator Margrethe Vestager has been investigating ‌Apple Pay‌ since June last year, but the European Commission has since centered its focus on the...

The European Commission has presented legislation that would compel Apple to use a USB-C port on all iPhones, iPads, and AirPods in Europe (via Reuters). The proposal, known as a directive, would force all consumer electronics manufacturers who sell devices in Europe to ensure that all smartphones, tablets, cameras, headphones, portable speakers, handheld videogame consoles feature a USB-C...

Three has become the latest UK mobile network to reintroduce EU roaming fees, in another post-Brexit setback for customers traveling abroad. A flat £2 daily charge when roaming within an EU country will apply to customers who are new or upgrading from October 1. The changes will not come into effect until May 23 2022. The operator joins EE and Vodafone who have recently announced the...

Apple may be forced to remove the Lightning port from the iPhone in favor of USB-C, according to legislation expected be presented by the European Commission next month, Reuters reports. The legislation would establish a common charging port for all mobile phones and other relevant devices in all European Union countries. The move is expected to primarily affect Apple, since many popular...

Vodafone is bringing back roaming charges for U.K. users traveling in Europe, the second mobile operator do so post-Brexit after originally saying they had no plans to re-introduce them. New and upgrading customers on "selected plans" will be charged at least £1 per day to use their mobile phone in EU destinations. The rules will change for new and upgrading customers from Wednesday,...

In ongoing antitrust discussions about App Store competition, Apple has maintained that allowing users to install apps outside of the ‌App Store‌ would have dire privacy consequences, but European Union digital competition chief Margrethe Vestager said today that Apple must not use privacy excuses to limit competition. In an interview with Reuters, Vestager said that privacy and security are ...

Apple has been found to be in breach of EU competition law with Apple Music, according to the preliminary findings of the European Commission. The charges relate to a two-year-old antitrust dispute initiated by Spotify. The European Commission was expected to bring charges against Apple over concerns that its App Store rules break EU competition law this week, and ahead of a formal verdict,...

The European Commission will this week bring charges against Apple over concerns that its App Store rules break EU competition law, reports the Financial Times. The charges relate to a two-year-old antitrust dispute with Spotify. Margrethe Vestager, the EU's competition chief, will late this week publicly issue charges against Apple over concerns that the rules it sets for developers on its...

EU regulators are in the process of finalizing a charge sheet against Apple, initiated by an antitrust complaint from Spotify (via Reuters). In 2019, Spotify filed a complaint with the European Commission, alleging that Apple enforces App Store rules that "purposely limit choice and stifle innovation at the expense of the user experience," accusing the company of "acting as both a player...

Epic Games has filed an antitrust complaint against Apple in the European Union, broadening its legal battle against the tech giant by attempting to appeal to the EU's differing interpretation of antitrust issues compared to those in the United States (via The Wall Street Journal). Last September, ‌Epic Games‌‌‌ added a Fortnite update that allowed customers to purchase in-game currency direc...

TikTok on Tuesday was targeted by EU consumer protection groups for allegedly violating the bloc's consumer laws and for failing to protect children from hidden advertising and inappropriate content (via Reuters). The European Consumer Organisation (BEUC) lodged a complaint against the short video-sharing app with the European Commission, citing several issues in its complaint, one of which...

France is pushing for changes to the EU's upcoming regulations on big tech companies, including Apple, Google, Amazon, and Facebook, that would make it easier for governments to penalize bad behavior and widen controls on content, according to a new report by the Financial Times. The Digital Services Act, presented in December 2020, is designed to tackle illegal online content in the...

The European Union has set out its grounds of appeal against Apple's victory in its $13 billion euro ($15.8 billion) tax dispute, saying that judges used "contradictory reasoning" when they ruled that Apple's business in Ireland was not liable for significant payments (via Bloomberg). In a summary of its appeal published earlier today, the EU set out its determination to challenge the court...

Apple CEO Tim Cook will speak at the EU Computers, Privacy, and Data Protection (CPDP) conference later this week (via Macerkopf). CPDP is a Brussels-based non-profit platform founded in 2007 by a group of European universities. The conference offers an insight into legal, regulatory, academic, and technological development in privacy and data protection, and seeks to discuss emerging...

Some Messenger and Instagram features are temporarily unavailable to users in Europe in order to comply with new rules on data usage currently being rolled out in EU countries. Affected users are seeing alerts in the Facebook-owned apps that some features aren’t available to "respect new rules for messaging services in Europe." The alert doesn't specify what the missing features are, but ...

Big tech companies, including Apple, Amazon, Google, and Facebook, could soon face new wide-reaching regulations in the European Union, under new legislation presented today by the European Commission (via CNBC). Amid concern for smaller European companies looking to compete in the European market, the European Commission today presented two new pieces of legislation that aim to strictly...

Irish lawmakers implementing European Union directives are proposing new legislation that would require streaming services, including Apple TV+, Amazon Prime Video, and Netflix, to host at least 30 percent European content or face being shut down across the EU. These clauses of the "General Scheme of the Online Safety and Media Regulation Bill" come in response to the overwhelming amount...

The European Parliament has this week voted to support the recommendations of the EU Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection on the "Right to Repair," including a system of mandatory labelling on consumer electronics to provide explicit information on the repairability and lifespan of products (via iFixit). The motion will compel the EU Commission to "develop and introduce ...

As the European Union increasingly targets big tech companies, top antitrust enforcer Margrethe Vestager has warned against the structural break up of big tech companies (via The Information). The comments were somewhat surprising, as Vestager has aggressively pursued antitrust investigations against the likes of Apple, Google, and Amazon in recent years. For example, it was Vestager who...

EU regulators are taking aim at up to 20 big tech companies, including Apple, as part of a "hit list" that seeks to curb their market influence, reports The Financial Times. The plans reportedly involve the demand that larger tech companies face tougher regulations than smaller competitors, data sharing with rivals, and increased transparency on data gathering. The move is part of a wider...