Apple Denies Lack Of Openness Criticism, Says It Has Complyed With EU Digital Market Act

JAKARTA - Apple denies criticism that it is not yet open enough in its ecosystem, as required by the European Union's Digital Markets Act (DMA). They stated that they had complied with the regulation.

DMA sets a list of obligations and bans for big tech companies such as Apple, Google (Alphabet), Amazon, Meta Platforms (Facebook owners), TikTok (ByteDance), and Microsoft. The six companies must comply with this regulation from 7 March.

In recent weeks, Apple announced a series of changes. This includes allowing iPhone app developers to distribute their app directly to consumers, not just through the App Store. In addition, developers are also now allowed to distribute their apps to users in the European Union outside the App Store.

At a hearing organized by the European Commission, Apple told app developers, business users, and competitors that they had redesigned their systems to suit DMA.

"Our main priority is to ensure that we comply with the regulations. Second, we do it in a way that is consistent with our values and the language we have developed with our users over a very long period. And we think we have achieved it," said Kyle Andeer, Apple's lawyer, in the hearing.

"And in our opinion, this focuses on the user's perspective. Of course, that doesn't mean we don't focus on the impact on developers. However, from our point of view, the most important thing is that we will closely track the impact of all these different changes on the user experience we have given customers for 15, 16 years via the iPhone," he added.

Meta will present their compliance efforts at separate hearings on Tuesday, March 19, Amazon on Wednesday, March 20, Alphabet on Thursday, March 21, and ByteDance on Friday, March 22, and Microsoft on Tuesday, March 26.

Companies that fail to comply with DMA are at risk of being investigated that could lead to fines of up to 10% of their total annual global revenue.