Apple Insists It Complies With EU’s Digital Markets Act

Apple is defending its practices under Europe’s newly adopted Digital Markets Act (DMA).

At a hearing Monday (March 18), the tech giant said that it has followed the landmark law, and pushed back against criticisms that it had not done enough to open its ecosystems to others, Reuters reported.

“We were guided first and foremost by ensuring that we’ve complied with the law,” Apple attorney Kyle Andeer testified. “And then second, that we did it in a way that was consistent with our values and consistent with the language that we’ve developed with our users over a very long period of time. And we think we’ve accomplished that.”

He added that the company was focused on the user’s respective.

“Now, it’s not to say that we’re not focused on the impact of developers, but I think from our perspective first and foremost, we’ll be tracking very carefully what’s the impact of all of these different changes on the user experience that we’ve delivered to our customers for 15, 16 years through the iPhone?” 

The DMA came into effect March 7 and places new restrictions on six tech giants: Amazon, Apple, ByteDance, Google, Meta and Microsoft. 

Apple’s compliance efforts have come into focus, especially relating to its app store. The company said it has made changes to comply with the law, such as permitting app developers to distribute iPhone apps directly to consumers, bypassing the store, and letting developers distribute apps to users within the EU outside of the app store.

Meanwhile, PYMNTS spoke with Mark Beresford, who heads the Retailer Payments Practice for London’s Edgar Dunn & Company, about the DMA’s impact on the retail space, in an interview posted on Monday. 

He said that the DMA opens the market up for more retail payment methods and will foster their interoperability. He anticipates changes that include face-to-face contactless payments and transactions from a third-party banking or wallet app. 

“Consumers will be able to pay via a contactless payment without a MasterCard, Visa or Amex card stored in their mobile wallet,” Beresford said. “Using a smartphone contactless payment, the transaction could be completed using PayPal, Open Banking, TikTok, WeChat Pay, or any other alternative payment method. Retailers will be in a strong position to accept faster, more secure and more cost-effective alternatives to the international card networks.”