EU Commissioner wants Apple to open its ecosystem to competitors
The European Commission, the executive arm of the European Union, introduced the Digital Markets Act (DMA) to ensure a higher degree of competition by preventing large companies from abusing their market power. One of the targeted companies is Apple, and according to Reuters, Commissioner of Internal Market Thierry Breton told Tim Cook he needs to open the ecosystem to competitors.
Breton revealed he met the Apple CEO in Brussels and told him Apple should allow iPhone users to benefit from competitive services, be it electronic wallets, browsers or app stores. One of the counter-arguments Cook used was that it might compromise security and privacy, but the EU chief added DMA fosters innovation without jeopardizing either of these.
So far, six companies have been designated as gatekeepers that need their digital products and services adapted to the Act â Alphabet (owner of Google), Amazon, Apple, ByteDance (owner of TikTok), Meta (owner of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp), and Microsoft.
According to the European Commission's website, the DMA wants gatekeepers to allow third parties to inter-operate within the companies' own services, allow business users to access data generated by them, and allow businesses to conclude contracts and deals outside the platform.