Apple’s antitrust battles with the European Union are many and varied, and it may now be facing yet another one.
Italy’s competition regulator has today opened an investigation into whether Apple illegally preferences iCloud over third-party cloud services – and says it will be sending a report to the EU Commission …
Apple is facing antitrust actions in a great many countries around the world. In the past couple of years, it has paid fines totaling almost $3 billion for breaches of various competition laws.
The company has generally adopted a tough line in responding to antitrust accusations. It has rarely admitted wrongdoing, and in some cases has said it would rather partially or wholly withdraw from a market than comply with the demands of regulators.
In the case of the Apple Intelligence features in iOS 27, for example, the company has not made these available within the first developer beta inside EU countries. The EU wants Apple to provide third-party AI services with the same access to the iPhone as the new Siri, and the company has refused on security and privacy grounds. The iPhone maker says the European Commission has not even responded to its proposal for a compromise.
Reuters reports that the company is now facing an investigation into whether it illegally preferences iCloud over competing cloud services.
Italy’s competition regulator said on Tuesday it had opened an investigation into Apple over compliance with interoperability obligations, under the European Digital Markets Act. Under the rules, Apple must ensure that third-party providers of consumer cloud services can inter-operate effectively and free of charge with hardware and software components controlled through the group’s iOS and iPadOS operating systems, and have equal access as Apple’s iCloud service.
The authority said in the statement that it had proof that other providers of consumer cloud services could not be in the same position as iCloud, as they did not appear to have access to the same components used or made available to Apple’s service.
This is a particularly interesting one, as it’s not just an Italian issue. Sometimes regulators within a European country can investigate Apple and other tech giants for potential breaches of their own legislation. In this case, however, Italy is alleging that Apple is failing to comply with its obligations under the EU-wide Digital Markets Act (DMA).
The DMA allows individual EU member countries to carry out preliminary investigations and then to forward their findings to the EU Commission. If Italian regulators find Apple to be breaching the DMA, then it would be for the EU to review the conclusions and take action in response.
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Ben Lovejoy is a British technology writer and EU Editor for 9to5Mac. He’s known for his op-eds and diary pieces, exploring his experience of Apple products over time, for a more rounded review. He also writes fiction, with two technothriller novels, a couple of SF shorts and a rom-com!
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