A better way to put it is that the UK s**t the bed with the 2016 referendum, and are now working their way to being let back into the bed....
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Apple Warns UK Risks Feature Delays Under Proposed Competition Rules
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No corporation should. But that's the world we live in in now. Thanks, USA, for making corporate lobbying standard practice in modern politics.
How will they ever make it without image playground
To be fair the issue is that the World Wide Web is layers of sticky tape and excrement. All you can do is paste some more dung on the top.
Most of the privacy problems are abused misfeatures.
No. Websites that insist on continuing to use persistent cookies gave us cookie popups. No persistent cookies = no need for pop-ups. The mistake the EU made was not mandating the design of the pop-up so we're seeing all sorts of "dark patterns" and ridiculously complex forms.
Yeah, what is this, some kind of pinko commie "due diligence" rubbish? Why actually do your research when you could just have asked some rando on the internet what they thought - because that would stand up in court when they tried to sanction Apple or Google for breaking the rules. /s
Turns out, if you want favourable, frictionless trading terms with the 500 million customers living right next door then it helps to align your rules and regulations. Who could have predicted that in 2016? /s
Ah. Whataboutism at its finest.
Amazon Marketplace is on the EU list of DMA Gatekeepers (which the UK rules will probably copy & paste) so they'll be subject to the same rules if anybody makes a complaint or if they try anything nasty in the future - meanwhile, there's still a huge choice of online shopping sites & direct selling from manufacturers. This story is here because Apple whined and this is an Apple rumours site.
Oh god, no please! what will we do without it 😂
Right that's it UK:
No Genmoji's for you!
And even worse - we're withholding Image Playground!
Bad for Apple. Not necessarily bad for the consumer.
Is absolutely worse for the consumer. Fewer features, missing features, higher prices, less choice, reduced privacy, more scams, slower innovation and worse security. All when an open option already exists for those who prefer it.
This is what I'm worried about with forcing open the payment chip. Ideally I'd prefer just to have the apple wallet. All my bank/credit cards work with it. It's simple and quick to use. Alternate is if there's another 1 or 2 wallets (Google, Paypal?) that again all bank/credit cards support. I then chose which one to use.
Reality more like: every bank wants you to use their own app and won't work in Apple/Google/Paypal's wallet. Which then removes the convenience as you'll have to either default the double-click to their app, or open their app to get to the card. God only knows what happens when the bank app is under maintenance, has logged you out every time so you have to log back in to pay (Tesco Pay+ feature that stopped me every using it).
I'm hoping I'm wrong, but seeing how Barclaycard had their whole PingIt system with tags/rings etc you had to replace just as much as the cards, I'm not holding my breath.
Everyone wants to take from something they really had not part in creating. Apple created a device and operating system that allows for apps. They provide the kits that allow for creation and they provide the cloud infrastructure to support its use. Their fee - 30%. They provide the opportunity for many small companies to even have a place to go and earn revenue. If they didn't create the device and the platform, there would be nothing. It is common for a fee to be paid to participate in a marketplace. The entitlement gets me every time with these stories. Companies expect what? They want to charge a customer a fee and have nothing go to the company that actually makes it all possible? Why are these companies owed the opportunity to go and make money off the investment of Apple? The iPhone became popular, so what? It should be free for businesses to leverage the iPhone to go and make money for themselves? Some kind of public service? A lot of folks have iPhones - so every company on the planet is entitled to have access to it because why?
If they ever work properly. Remember this?
Barclays app outage deprives customers of banking services
Cyber attack discounted as UK high street bank hit by technical difficulties at critical time for many of its clients
It’s 2025 and somehow, every time they do an update or maintenance, the whole system collapses. As far as I know, the internet isn’t a garden hose you have to shut off to fix a leak. Yet, almost every weekend, I get a cheery little notification telling me the app will be unusable because of “maintenance”.
So a company like Apple, spends billions on building great products and an eco system that we all enjoy, then comes along companies Epic who says it is not fair to charge to be part of the eco system and complains to everyone who will listen. So the EU and UK steps in to cripple a company to make it 'fair' for these companies. All they are doing is making it worse for the users who actually buy and use Apple products.
I don't want an alternative store or side loading of programs, I want a system that is secure and works as expected.
What next? Telling Mcdonalds they have allow Starbucks into their stores so that they can offer their coffee instead?
The EU and UK are turning into nanny states.
I don't want an alternative store or side loading of programs, I want a system that is secure and works as expected.
What next? Telling Mcdonalds they have allow Starbucks into their stores so that they can offer their coffee instead?
The EU and UK are turning into nanny states.
Just because something is bleeding obvious doesn't mean the law will allow you to rely on that without documentation - even just relying on the jury knowing something that's fairly common knowledge can be enough to get a conviction overturned if you don't have properly-introduced evidence to "justify" the jury's decision.
The EU's total failure to enforce the rules against the member states for not properly enforcing the regulations created the mess that is modern cookie popups.
OTOH, an OS is only valuable because of the software that runs on it, and regulations like this are just a partial mitigation for the damage done by the utter lunacy of allowing copyright protection against "derivative works" to be expanded to prevent technical compatibility without permission, and so establish a mechanism for what is functionally forced tying (a practice which is always harmful to both consumers and competition, and so should never be upheld no matter what legal principle or theory is used to justify it).
Yes, that's called competition. In theory, that means that wallet apps would have to compete on quality of services and charges to encourage businesses to accept them, so that they could attract consumers.
In practice - the market probably wouldn't support 10 serious players so it would get whittled down to 2-3, which is when we need "competition laws" like the EU DMA (or endless civil lawsuits in the USA) to ward off anticompetetive practices and encrudification.
There is a world outside Apple and it is exactly like that - I use both Google Pay and Paypal, because not all sites accept both, they both work with my bank/credit cards - or direct debit to my current account - and if your bank doesn't support them that's enough of an annoyance to justify shifting banks. Then, plenty of online shopping sites don't support either so its credit card numbers at dawn.
Yet after 70-ish years of credit/charge cards and who-knows-how-many banks, in terms of what merchants will accept, it has whittled down to Visa, MasterCard or Amex plus also-rans, with Amex already being a bit niche. Even Wallet services like PayPal have been around for a quarter century yet there's still only 3 that matter.
The wallet apps only exist because the banks and card networks have been hopelessly slow to update a system that is only just starting to evolve beyond a virtual version of the old carbon paper card impression (especially in the USA where even chip-and-PIN is somehow deemed 'less secure' than letting the waiter disappear into a back room with your credit card...). I suspect that, longer term, Google/Apple/Pay/Pal will absorb MasterCard/Visa/Amex (or vice-versa) somehow - at least in terms of consumer-facing services.
My last credit card statement had some information-free blurb about a new scheme to make online purchases without having to enter your card number - you know, the way PayPal has done for 20 years - so they may be finally dragging themselves into the noughties.
I can't imagine having such contempt for my customers. Not a good look, Tim.
From my understanding of the EU directive, it’s two years and the seller is responsible, not the manufacturer. In addition, after 6 months the seller can require the person to prove the fault was not due to normal wear and tear or misuse.
So you have to go to seller, which can be problematic if you bought on holiday, for example; or outside the EU where it would not apply.
It’s not the same as a full manufacturer’s warranty.
A manufacturer/seller can offer better terms, of course. Apple, for example, offers a worldwide warranty on most rechargeable devices, but not plug in ones.
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The whole privacy and security argument is such bunk. IAP doesn’t exist on the web. It’s not used when purchasing non-digital goods in-app. Why does a digital good become not private or secure if Apple doesn’t get a 30% cut? It’s such BS.
Google is copying apple to limit side loading in newest Pixel phones. That “open” option is closing itself by the day. Whether you like it or not, feature parity between android and iOS will only increase. Accept it or stop using smartphones run in iOS and android.
I venture to guess most people don’t believe the above based on revenue over the last 10 years.
Withhold Apple Intelligence?
Not the most credible threat to be honest 🤡.
Not the most credible threat to be honest 🤡.
In this particular case, supposition, because the regulation isn’t even in place yet, but you only have to look at history to see how these things play out. Government doesn't know better than business in cases like this.
Just look at the EU:
- No iPhone mirroring (fewer/missing features)
- Prices higher than they are in the US (And no, it's not just because of currency or VAT, but also to partially to offset the costs of higher regulation)
- Users who want a closed ecosystem no longer have that option (less choice)
- Interoperability mandates means exposing more user data to firms like Meta (less privacy)
- Innovation is slower in Europe because of their regulation
- Insisted on bringing Android-style security problems from sideloading and third party stores to iOS.
Is there any evidence banks or credit card companies would remove the ability to add their card to the Wallet app if similar apps were allowed in the App Store? I would rather see Apple compete vs blocking other competitors under this bogus argument of privacy and security. Apple’s Wallet and IAP don’t have to be best in class when there aren’t other options (or the other options are intentionally made worse, like forcing you to a browser to complete a transaction).