Having failed to compete internationally, the EU is trying to regulate its way to some sort of relevance.
Having failed to compete internationally, the EU is trying to regulate its way to some sort of relevance (the “regulatory superpower”). One part of this effort is the way that Brussels uses antitrust as a protectionist device, particularly against U.S. tech companies who have committed the sin, not of suppressing competition, but of competing too well.
It was therefore good to see that Apple is responding to Brussels’ latest efforts in this area by not including the EU as a market for some of its new product offerings.
Apple Inc. is withholding a raft of new technologies from hundreds of millions of consumers in the European Union, citing concerns posed by the bloc’s regulatory attempts to rein in Big Tech.
The company announced Friday that it would block the release of Apple Intelligence, iPhone Mirroring and SharePlay Screen Sharing from users in the EU this year, because the Digital Markets Act allegedly forces it to downgrade the security of its products and services.
Under its Digital Markets Act, the EU subjects six leading tech companies (so-called “gatekeepers”) to heavier oversight of the way that they operate their platforms.
The six are Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Bytedance, Meta, and Microsoft.
Amazingly, five out of the six are American. One is Chinese. Less surprisingly, none come from the EU, reflecting the heavily regulated, highly taxed bloc’s failure to develop any companies that could match their stature.
As a general rule, these companies are trying to work with Brussels, and it is hard to blame them for making the effort. There comes a point, however, when it is easier to start cutting or withholding the services they offer within the EU (an approach that would come with the advantage of avoiding the risk of being subjected to the grotesquely heavy fines that come with breaches of the DMA) than to keep trying to satisfy a bureaucracy that has no interest in playing fair.