The European Union hopes that Google will open its service interface to all artificial intelligence companies. This proposal has been strongly opposed by Google, and Apple has also expressed support for Google. During the EU's consultation period on Google's proposal to open up its Android system to rival AI companies, Apple submitted a harsh submission to the European Commission.
Apple said in its submission to the EU that the draft measures "raise urgent and serious concerns." Apple is particularly concerned that, as envisioned by the European Union, any AI company could theoretically send emails or order food through Android without the user's knowledge. Apple warned that "if these measures are confirmed, they would pose far-reaching risks to user privacy, safety and security, and device integrity and performance."
Apple also pointed out in its opinion that the EU has specifically emphasized AI companies in its proposals, and that the performance of current AI applications is often full of errors and flaws. "These risks are particularly acute in the context of rapidly evolving AI systems, as the capabilities, behavior, and threat vectors of these systems remain unpredictable, as we are now seeing time and time again." Although Apple’s public statement this time is directed at the regulatory issues of Google’s Android system, the company is obviously also worried that its iOS system may face the same mandatory opening requirements in the future.
In this opinion letter, Apple also questioned the technical professionalism of the European Commission. Apple said: "The European Commission is redesigning an operating system and replacing the judgment of Google engineers with its own judgment based on less than three months of work. This approach is especially dangerous because the only value discernible from the draft measures appears to be open and unrestricted access." Apple also mentioned that the company had previously claimed to have invested "hundreds of thousands of engineering hours" in complying with the Digital Markets Act.
It is reported that the consultation period will last from April 27 to May 13, 2026. The European Commission said it would "carefully evaluate" the comments from Google and other stakeholders and may make adjustments to the proposed measures based on those comments. However, the EU also clearly stipulates that the final decision must be made within six months after starting the regulatory process, that is, before July 27, 2026. Just in May of this year, the EU had just concluded that the Digital Markets Act had had a positive impact, which meant that the EU ignored Apple’s lobbying efforts to amend the act.