EC reviewing Apple’s DMA compliance for third-party accessories
Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the Mediterranean, the European Commission and the DMA are back:
Today, the European Commission has started two specification proceedings to assist Apple in complying with its interoperability obligations under the Digital Markets Act (‘DMA’). Under the DMA, Apple must provide free and effective interoperability to third party developers and businesses with hardware and software features controlled by Apple’s operating systems iOS and iPadOS, designated under the DMA.
In general I’ve been supportive of the EC’s attempt to level the playing field. This proceeding, however, definitely made me raise an eyebrow, if for no other reason than it feels extremely vague. Here’s how the EC details it:
The first proceeding focuses on several iOS connectivity features and functionalities, predominantly used for and by connected devices. Connected devices are a varied, large and commercially important group of products, including smartwatches, headphones and virtual reality headsets. Companies offering these products depend on effective interoperability with smartphones and their operating systems, such as iOS. The Commission intends to specify how Apple will provide effective interoperability with functionalities such as notifications, device pairing and connectivity.
The upshot seems to be to allow third-party accessories to have the same benefits as Apple’s own accessories, like the Apple Watch and AirPods. Some of this is work Apple’s already done with iOS 18’s new accessory pairing feature, which it’s now incumbent upon third-party developers to embrace. Ultimately, the experience for third-party accessories should be much closer to that of AirPods.
But at the end of the day, a lot of what makes AirPods better is the fact that it’s using Apple designed hardware, like the H-series chips instead of standard Bluetooth. I have difficulty imaging that the EC would require Apple to make that hardware available to third parties. (Or that other companies would choose to use it, even if they did, given the relative expense.) It seems like eventually that’s a brick wall that this legislation would run into.
All of this depends precisely on how you slice it: it’s one thing to afford all third-party developers the same opportunities, but there’s a fine line between that and forcing Apple to do additional work for those competitors or degrade its own experience.
On the other hand, the iOS 18 changes may be enough to meet the DMA requirements. We’ll have to see if the EC can walk that line.
The second part of the proceeding is a little more straightforward, mandating “transparent, timely, and fair” communication with third parties over interoperability requests, which seems perfectly reasonable to me—we could all hope for as much.