iPad Accessory Integration Becomes the EU's Next Regulatory Feud With Apple

[Janschi]

"Customers seem to really value how Apple implemented this, let's regulate it away."

The EU needs to start innovating instead of inventing new charges to punish American companies over.

Start-Ups have it especially hard here in Germany. If I had an idea where I'm not 99% sure it would be a success, I wouldn't bother with the paperwork.

 

[Janschi]

It just seems like constant attacks on Apple’s business model of creating an ecosystem that offers integration advantages. Maybe time would be better spent attacking business models that threaten consumer’s privacy and security like data harvesting and brokerage. And yeah, they did something about cookies, but look how dimwitted the implementation is.

I worked at a financial institution when the GDPR was introduced and it was a pain in the ass. I don't know how true it was, but we've been told that if we don't get the consent of the customers, the bank wouldn't even be able to contact the account holders in case of fraud or other stuff regarding their accounts.

 

[yabeweb]

Totally agree with EU.

That does not mean all items should operate the same, but the integration Apple has makes 3rd parties harder to advocate for.

Let them all have the same access to the ssystem as Apple has, that will make them battle with the same weapons.

There are plenty of 3rd party devices that would co circe around Apple’s default one if they had the same integration.

Apple is definitely crippling them in order to make you chose the one with the apple on it.

 

[Ctrlos]

It's about the Apple watches, Apple Pencils etc. Those have a certain level of integration Apple does not allow 3rd party devices to have.

If other companies had the same options it might prompt Apple to actually do something with the Apple Watch. I have vertical Android integration with a Galaxy Watch 7 and the OS is buttery smooth and the battery lasts 4 days.

 

[Ctrlos]

Apple isn’t a monopoly. It doesn’t have a monopoly anywhere in the world.

It has a monopoly over it's billion+ users.

 

[yabeweb]

If Apple played hardball, the EU would cave. They probably all use iPhones. They wouldn't be willing to give that up when push came to shove.

Not to mention, since they apparently care so much about monopolies over there, Apple could threaten to pull out and say, "Well guys, good job, you've created a monopoly now. Google owns 100% of the future smartphone OS market share. Are you happy now?"

These companies just aren't willing to play hard enough.

Just LOL!

I can’t see that happening, Apple needs EU more than EU needs Apple.

 

[MallardDuck]

Maybe they should focus on cutting regulations so their companies can innovate instead of attacking US ones that do.

 

[MallardDuck]

It has a monopoly over it's billion+ users.

Name one product where apple has more than 50% market share?

headphones? Nope. Desktops? Not even close? Laptops? Nope? Tablets? Nope. Not even phones (android has more users).

Now if you want to define the market as 'apple phones' sure. But then blackberry still has a monopoly on 'blackberries'.

 

[msackey]

I'm speaking out of a little ignorance here. However, it does seem to be a possible overreach by EU? I mean, a company does have good reason to create its own ecosystem and that's not necessarily anti-competitive, unless it's defined as any system one creates HAS to accept anyone else's accessories. That would be nutty to me. At that point, why not argue that Apple Watch has to operate on Android; or that iPhones have to be to be able to run Android; or that Windows PCs have to be able to run macOS natively without emulation.

I don't get it.

 

[UnbreakableAlex]

I hope the EU also finally forces Apple to stop with the exorbitant prices for SSD and RAM and to charge market-competitive prices in Europe.

 

[ProbablyDylan]

Name one product where apple has more than 50% market share?

In Europe, tablets are 49% Apple. I know not 50 but close enough.

 

[djphat2000]

You would leave the European market and leave behind 25 percent (or more) of your annual sales? Good thing someone like Tim Cook, who is not known to make rash impulsive decisions, is still in charge.

Europe brought in $101.328 Billion in sales for Apple's fiscal year 2024. That's 25.9 percent of total revenue.

Let them go kick rocks with flip flops!.

 

[TigerNike23]

Yes, losing 25% of their global revenue.
That makes a lot of sense.

Apple Statistics — Users, Devices, and Revenue (2025)

Apple in 2025: 2.2B active devices, $383B annual revenue, 17% smartphone market share, 3.84M App Store apps, 89.8M Apple Music subscribers.

backlinko.com

I mean, I’m no math guru, but if they violate 3 regulations in the EU… each with a penalty of 10% of global revenue, it would actually be cheaper to just leave the market.

 

[djphat2000]

Don't give them any ideas, they will want Apple to allow third party operating systems. Microsoft should be able to install Windows on the iPad..

It would run the OS better though. To be fair. 😂

 

[sw1tcher]

I don't have a source, but I have been asking for months why the percentage of App Store revenue be any different than the percentage of iPhone revenue in the EU and no one has given me an answer. Why on earth would percentage of App Store revenue be meaningfully different? Seems like if the EU makes up 7% of App Store revenue they'd also make up around 7% of iPhone revenue, but I'd honestly appreciate a reason why that is a bad assumption. The best answer I've gotten so far is "EU users probably buy fewer Apps than American users" but no citation when I asked.

As another point in favor it for being significantly lower than the 22% of "Europe", we know Apple's two largest revenue drivers in the "Europe" segment are outside of the EU (UK and India). Germany and France are next.

We can also do some math based on 2023 iPhone revenue:
Apple made roughly $200 billion worth of revenue from iPhone in 2023. Apple doesn't break out iPhone sales by region, but I've seen an estimate of ~$40 billion thrown out repeatedly. However, let's just assume that it's the same 22% of global revenue that the "Europe" market segment makes up. 22% of $200 billion is $44 billion.

• Apple is estimated to have made ~$10 billion (5%) of iPhone revenue in the UK (estimate of 8.4 million iPhones sold in UK, assuming average price of £899/$1150) and $5 billion (2.5%) in India (note the India number is conservative, per the article linked above, India accounted for 4% of iPhone revenue in Q2 2023). So right there the rest of the European market segment is down to $29 billion, or 14.5% of global iPhone revenue.
• The Middle East is estimated to account for around $5.6 billion (~3%) of iPhone revenue (5.6 million phones, assuming $999 average price). My link there says it does not include Turkey, and I'm unclear if it includes Israel, but for "being conservative" purposes we'll count both Turkey and Israel in the $5.6 billion. So now the European Market segment is down to $23.4 billion, or a little under 12% of global iPhone revenue.
• Now let's factor in Africa and non-EU countries not previously accounted for - harder to estimate here, as there aren't clear figures I can find. So I'll give them ALL to the EU.

So even with me spotting the EU $4 billion at the top of calculation, then giving the EU all non-UK European revenue, and all African revenue, and assuming Turkey and Israel are in the Middle East and not counted separately, we've got the EU with 12% of global iPhone revenue. If I use the $40 billion estimate I've seen cited, then the EU comes in right at 9.7% of global iPhone revenue and that is giving the EU all non-UK European revenue and all African revenue. Maybe some of my estimates are off, but even if I'm too low by 50%, the EU is swinging way above its weight when we look at the fines of 10/20% of Global revenue.

Again, Apple isn't going to pull out of the EU unless the EU does something very stupid like mandating encryption backdoors, and even then I don't know that they do.

Why are you only calculating App Store and iPhone revenue? Does Apple not sell anything else (iPads, Macs, Apple Watches, AirPods, etc) in Europe?

 

[yabeweb]

I mean, I’m no math guru, but if they violate 3 regulations in the EU… each with a penalty of 10% of global revenue, it would actually be cheaper to just leave the market.

Except the 10% x 3 is one time fee the 25% is yearly… lose 5% 1 year or lose 25% forever?

And with some adjustment you can easily escape the 10% x 3 and still make money even the first year….

 

[FCX]

I mean, I’m no math guru, but if they violate 3 regulations in the EU… each with a penalty of 10% of global revenue, it would actually be cheaper to just leave the market.

Let's not forget to factor in millions in legal costs, that money gets added to the burn pile too.

 

[FCX]

Except the 10% x 3 is one time fee the 25% is yearly… lose 5% 1 year or lose 25% forever?

And with some adjustment you can easily escape the 10% x 3 and still make money even the first year….

This all assumes Apple comes into compliance. Maybe they don't want to. Then what?

 

[sw1tcher]

If Apple played hardball, the EU would cave. They probably all use iPhones. They wouldn't be willing to give that up when push came to shove.

Not to mention, since they apparently care so much about monopolies over there, Apple could threaten to pull out and say, "Well guys, good job, you've created a monopoly now. Google owns 100% of the future smartphone OS market share. Are you happy now?"

These companies just aren't willing to play hard enough.

Correction, they care about the abuse of monopoly position, not monopolies themselves.

 

[TigerNike23]

Put me in the group that thinks the EU is targeting American companies over EU companies.

They push these mandates for Apple and Google but I have yet to see a mandate for the EU-based car companies for CarPlay. The EU seems perfectly fine letting them use *only* an integrated Google system.

Why? Is it because the car companies are European? Also, no regulations for Spotify? The market leader in music subscriptions?

 

[yabeweb]

This all assumes Apple comes into compliance. Maybe they don't want to. Then what?

They will, like they already did.

They are just trying to flex, but at the end of te day, no businessman is stupid enough to cut himself out of any market.

 

[ItsASpider]

You know, I would just leave the market and tell the EU to piss off. The folks can inport the devices they want without all the toddler's nonsense.

Aah yes, because it is incredibly unreasonable of the EU to demand that... *checks notes* ...Apple allows third party pens to also support pressure sensitivity.

The DMA isn't really a "law" so much as a vague, amorphous guideline that EC bureaucrats can weaponize to target disfavored American companies whenever they see fit. Case in point: the iPad doesn't meet the actual definition of a "gatekeeper," so the EC just concocted some hand-wavey BS to justify classifying it as such. This whole thing is such transparent protectionist nonsense.

The DMA's requirements aren't "vague, amorphous", and what it says is pretty clear; you cannot give yourself advantages on your own a platform once it reaches a dominant position.

Put me in the group that thinks the EU is targeting American companies over EU companies.

They push these mandates for Apple and Google but I have yet to see a mandate for the EU-based car companies for CarPlay. The EU seems perfectly fine letting them use *only* an integrated Google system.

Why? Is it because the car companies are European? Also, no regulations for Spotify? The market leader in music subscriptions?

No, it is because the car market isn't dominated by one single brand, as a matter of fact, it is one of the more competitive markets in the world. Never mind that they are not a digital service sector at all... Which, you know, is kinda important for the Digital Markets Act.

 

[jjudson]

Remember...

It's the EU gub-mint that wants more open phones.

Now why would they want that?

And who might want it next...?

 

[Naraxus]

It has a monopoly over it's billion+ users.

It doesn't but do explain why you think so.

 

[Stromos]

When does it stop?

This years releases were dismal tons of bugs little features/innovation especially if a device isn’t blessed for AI. Do I have proof? No. Still seems pretty clear Apple is cutting costs in dev and qa to compensate for lost revenue.

Do patents not matter anymore? If Belkin makes an Apple Pencil cloning all the features of Apple Pencil and it’s not quite working properly does Apple have to devote time to provide fixes?

Why is it okay Apple has to spend money time and resources for other companies to erode their sales?

Epic Games will give zero back to Apple. Belkin and others will give zero back to Apple but Apple is required to cater to them or pay tons of money to the EU which also won’t go back to Apple.

At some point it’s not going to be worth it anymore. Either Apple drops putting time into new features or leaves the EU. People saying it would be tons of money lost I agree but if they are having to dedicate tons of resources to cater to the EU and it’s making innovation suffer in all markets there is definitely a break even point.

Do we really need Apple trying to support a ton of Chinese knockoff devices when their own accessories have issues of their own? (Had to reboot my iPad twice this week because the pencil is unresponsive.) Now if Apple has to choice to work on fixing that issue or instead working on making third party devices or they will be heavily fined which are they going to prioritize? I already own the pencil there is definitely a higher incentive to work on those third party APIs before someone cries foul and they get fined.

No offense to anyone who wants to disagree but my Apple devices are pretty important to my day to day. I want my money going to ensuring that Apple keeps improving. I could care less about making other companies rich off of me owning Apple products especially when they contribute zero back to Apple.