Apple Details Massive iOS Changes, New Restrictions, to Comply With EU

Apple is making these changes under protest and won't be bringing them to other regions unless forced.

Apple has finally announced how it intends to comply with new EU platform competition laws that will take effect on March 7. The sweeping changes represent the biggest shakeup to Apple’s ecosystem since the App Store first debuted in 2008, allowing third-party apps onto the previously locked-down iPhone platform. While the tech giant will have to loosen its famously restrictive policies and allow things that it has previously refused to, citing security risks, iOS will not be turning into a free-for-all open platform as some might have imagined. New guidelines and restrictions aim to preserve Apple’s control over many aspects of the user experience.

Under the new EU-wide Digital Markets Act, Apple is designated as a “gatekeeper” and must comply with guidelines that will change how it has so far prevented other companies from using non-Apple in-app payment systems and charging lower prices by circumventing Apple’s transaction commission.

The compliance efforts will be rolled out with iOS 17.4, which is expected to be released in early March. Most of these changes, which Apple has protested, will only apply to users within the EU, although some other new policies, such as allowing game streaming app libraries and expanding analytics data, are global. Even as it works on complying with the DMA deadline, Apple is appealing it, and critics have already slammed its new policies as “malicious compliance”. 

Apple Fellow Phil Schiller referred to “the unavoidable increased privacy and security threats this regulation brings” in a statement, while Epic CEO Tim Sweeny published a scathing tweet calling Apple’s announcements “a new also-illegal anticompetitive scheme rife with new junk fees on downloads and new Apple taxes on payments they don’t process”.

According to the Coalition for App Fairness, comprised of over 70 members including Spotify, Match Group, Basecamp and the European Publishers Council, “Apple’s ‘plan’ is a shameless insult to the European Commission and the millions of European consumers they represent – it must not stand and should be rejected by the Commission.”

Starting with third-party distribution, Apple will now have to allow developers to offer free and paid apps to users in the EU without going through Apple’s own App Store for the first time, and in-app purchases using their own payment platforms. However, developers hoping to avoid Apple’s fee structure and rigorous app vetting processes will still be disappointed.

However, Apple will still require apps to be “notarised”, which involves being scanned for malware, and all third-party marketplaces will need Apple’s approval to operate. App Stores must display information about apps in the same way that Apple currently does, plus include information from the notarisation process. Alternative payment methods in apps must include disclosure statements. Users will be able to set third-party Web browsers, app stores and contactless payment apps as their system defaults. 

Apple’s statement repeatedly asserts that these changes will affect security and introduce risks, as well as potentially degrade the user experience and device battery life. App Tracking Transparency will continue to be enforced, however iOS features such as Family Purchase Sharing will not work, and purchase history will be fragmented. Apple also stated it will not be able to issue refunds for purchases made through alternative services or provide effective customer service in case of fraud.

Developers who wish to move away from Apple’s infrastructure will still need to pay a 17 percent commission (dropping to 10 percent after the first year for unspecified use cases) for what the company says is the value it creates for their businesses. Using Apple’s systems only to process transactions will add another 3 percent to that fee. A new Core Technology Fee will cost developerse EUR 0.5 for each first install after crossing one million installs. Apple estimates that 99 percent of developers will save money, though the imposition of new fees has already been met with protests. New tools for developers to estimate costs will be provided by Apple.