As part of an investigation into whether Apple complies with the Digital Services Act (DSA), the EU has said that it suspects the company of failing to protect its customers from scams. The Cupertino company is also accused of not providing enough safety measures for children who use its devices.
The iPhone maker has responded with an exceptionally strongly-worded letter, accusing the EU of hypocrisy and cynically attempting to distract attention from the failings of its own laws …
Another war of words
The war of words between Apple and the EU got dialed up several notches today, just a couple of weeks after the two sides squared up in court in a hearing on the legality of the Digital Markets Act (DMA). In that case, Apple accused the EU of “imposing hugely onerous and intrusive burdens” on the company, while the EU said that the iPhone maker wanted to lock in users in order to achieve “supernormal profits.”
The EU’s accusations against Apple
The latest battle is over the DMA’s sister legislation, the DSA. This law requires tech giants to take reasonable steps to protect their users from harm. This includes guarding Apple customers from scam apps as well as ensuring that the safety and privacy of children is properly protected.
The EU has written to Apple expressing concerns about two aspects of the company’s compliance with the DSA.
The Commission suspects that Apple “has not put in place reasonable, proportionate and effective mitigation measures tailored to this specific systemic risk [of financial scams through App Store]” […] The Commission suspects that Apple “has not put in place appropriate and proportionate measures to ensure a high level of safety and security of minors on their service”.
Apple’s counter-accusations
Apple VP of Legal Kyle Andeer has written an unusually blunt reply, accusing the EU of hypocrisy.
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