Apple CEO Tim Cook attends the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference at the Apple Park campus in Cupertino, California, USA on Monday, June 10, 2024.
David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Apple said on Friday that it will not release three recently announced features, including its flagship AI product “Apple Intelligence,” in the European Union (EU) in 2024 due to “regulatory uncertainty” caused by antitrust restrictions in the EU's Digital Markets Act.
In a statement, Apple said features such as Apple Intelligence, iPhone Mirroring and enhancements to its SharePlay screen-sharing product will not be available to EU customers because Apple believes “the DMA's interoperability requirements could force us to compromise the integrity of our products in ways that put users' privacy and data security at risk.”
The EU passed the DMA for 2023 following concerns that a handful of large tech companies, including Amazon, Apple, Alphabet, Meta, Microsoft and TikTok parent ByteDance, were acting as “gatekeepers” to stifle competition for smaller companies. The DMA requires basic functionality to work across competing devices and ecosystems.
The interoperability requirement applies to iPhones and iPads, but Macs are also affected by DMA because iPhone Mirroring allows you to duplicate your iPhone screen on your Mac's screen.
The loss of the company's AI products may be disappointing to consumers. Apple Intelligence can proofread your text and rewrite it to sound more friendly or professional. It can also create custom emojis, called Genmoji, search for messages from specific people on your iPhone, summarize and transcribe phone calls, and show priority notifications. The company also announced a partnership with OpenAI and a roadmap of other models to be added to the platform.
Apple's shares were little changed following the news. Apple expects net sales in Europe to be $94.3 billion in 2023, just under a quarter of its global net sales. Apple Intelligence is also not available in Greater China, which will account for $72.6 billion of its 2023 sales.
The company said it would work with the European Union “to find a solution that allows us to provide these capabilities without compromising the safety of our EU customers.”
