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Legal Corner: Apple’s “notarisation” – blocking software freedom of developers and users!
on: 2025-11-05
The EU’s Digital Markets Act is supposed to shake up the power of tech giants by giving developers and users more choice. Apple’s “notarisation” of mobile apps contradicts these objectives. A civil-society complaint against Apple’s monopolistic control over app distribution aims to change that.
CC-BY-SA 4.0. by Rahak for FSFE
The EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) aims for a structural reset of power in digital markets, a shift from corporate control toward device neutrality, where users decide what runs on their devices. For Free Software, this legislation can be a unique opportunity by finally opening closed ecosystems - like iOS - to Free Software alternatives. Apple has reacted aggressively against the DMA, litigating against regulators, and unfairly excluding Free Software from iOS and iPadOS by blocking the unfettered installation of software (sideloading), prohibiting alternative app stores, and hindering interoperability.
The FSFE has recently contributed to a complaint initiated by civil-society organisations targeting Apple’s non-compliance with the DMA, urging the European Commission to enforce the DMA’s rules related to interoperability and the app store, giving users and developers effective choice over which apps and app stores they want to use on their devices. This complaint is important for software freedom, contextualising the diverse approaches towards curation of software distribution.
The action taken: calling out the illegality of Apple’s “notarization” of mobile apps
Imagine that you are a Free Software developer willing to make your program available in the iPhone. You want to have your software curated in a non-profit Free Software-friendly app store (like F-Droid for Android). This is important for you because you prefer to not have Apple controlling what your software does and to whom it should be made available.
This all sounds good, until you realise that your plan is not possible in iOS. There is no non-profit Free Software app store available for iPhones and iPads. Apple blocks non-profit app stores with extremely high financial requirements and prohibits unfettered installation of software. Even for the Free Software commercial ones, such as the Alt Store, Apple still applies a complete review and control, through an encryption layer over distributed source code.
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