Yes Apple will have to. Apple should absolutely follow the laws in the jurisdictions it operates in.
Doesn't mean it's a good law, morally right, won't make products worse, or completely explain why the EU is a wasteland when it comes to innovation.
You’re mistaking the lack of consumer-facing mega companies like Apple or Google for a lack of innovation. But that’s a category error. The EU doesn’t churn out viral apps or clone startups to chase VC hype it builds the infrastructure that U.S. companies depend on to even function.
Why? Because Europe funded long-term R&D, integrated cross-border innovation, and regulated for competition, not for quarterly profits or market consolidation or to maximize shallow investor returns.
While the U.S. was busy offshoring and consolidating, Europe was making bets on deep tech that actually paid off. What America calls “innovation” often amounts to scaling UX polish and acquisitions not real technological breakthroughs.
Here’s what actual innovation looks like:
- ASML (NL): The only company in the world that makes EUV lithography machines. No ASML, no cutting-edge chips. Apple, Nvidia, AMD, TSMC, Intel all rely on it. The U.S. government literally tried to protect its domestic lithography industry (GCA, SVG, etc.). ASML still crushed them. Not because the U.S. dropped the ball because Europe out-innovated and never stopped investing.
- Infineon (DE): Core supplier of EV chips, power semiconductors, and industrial controls. Tesla’s supply chain runs through them.
- Ericsson (SE) & Nokia (FI): Building over 50% of global 5G RAN infrastructure including the U.S. market. AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile all depend on them. Huawei? Banned. Cisco? Out of the game.
- Adyen (NL) & Stripe (IE): The back-end of global digital payments. Uber, Amazon, Netflix, Meta? They’re all running their payments through EU infrastructure.
- SAP (DE): The world’s biggest ERP provider. No U.S. equivalent exists at this scale. Runs 87% of global commerce through its ERP systems. Name a Fortune 500 it’s running SAP
- Siemens (DE): Builds smart factories, mobility systems, power grids, and medical tech. Quietly powers the industrial world
- BioNTech (DE): Delivered the first approved mRNA vaccine in the West. Moderna wasn’t first. Pfizer licensed from BioNTech.
- ARM (UK): The CPU architecture for every smartphone on Earth. Apple’s M-series is just a high-end implementation.
- Airbus (FR/DE): The only serious rival to Boeing and unlike them, Airbus actually makes planes that fly without falling apart mid-air. It leads on fuel efficiency, safety, and next-gen aviation R&D. And while Boeing’s still in Senate hearings, Airbus is busy delivering jets on time.
- Philips (NL): No longer just light bulbs now a leader in medical imaging, diagnostics, and hospital technology.
- KONE (FI): Global leader in elevators, escalators, and urban vertical mobility. Probably built the one you took this morning.
- Celonis (DE): Invented and leads the “process mining” category Fortune 500 firms use it to analyze and optimize business systems.
- SWIFT (BE): Runs the backbone of global bank-to-bank payments. Still dominant despite U.S. attempts to build alternatives.
You don’t see this on iPhone commercials because it’s not consumer-facing. It’s foundational. Europe builds what America runs on.
TL;DR:
America builds empires. Europe builds the infrastructure they run on.
No EU? Then your iPhone doesn’t boot, your chips don’t print, your vaccines don’t exist, and your networks don’t connect. Europe doesn’t “move fast and break things.” We build slow, own the critical layers, and let the
U.S. sell it back with shiny packaging.
That’s why we regulate gatekeepers not because we hate tech, but because we know scale without checks kills real innovation. You don’t get another ASML or ARM by letting companies hoard control.
Call it boring or invisible but every time you unlock your phone, pay online, stream Netflix, or use your headphones, you’re relying on European tech. The EU isn’t a tech wasteland. It’s the foundation.
You’re just too distracted by the screen on top and arrogant to notice it. 
