EU Warns Apple Not to Use Privacy and Security to Justify Anti-Competitive Behavior

Margrethe Vestager, executive vice president of the European Commission, warned Apple against using privacy and security concerns to excuse anti-competitive behavior on Friday, reports Reuters.

The warning comes as Apple has ramped up marketing efforts to justify its ban on sideloading and third party app stores as a privacy and security necessity.

Last year, Vestager proposed the Digital Markets Act (DMA) that would force Apple to allow users to install applications downloaded from the internet or third party app stores. According to a document published by Apple last month, this would expose users to "serious security risks".


Some have suggested that we should create ways for developers to distribute their apps outside of the App Store, through websites or third-party app stores, a process called "sideloading." Allowing sideloading would degrade the security of the iOS platform and expose users to serious security risks not only on third-party app stores, but also on the App Store.

"I think privacy and security is of paramount importance to everyone," Vestager told Reuters in an interview. "The important thing here is, of course, that it's not a shield against competition, because I think customers will not give up neither security nor privacy if they use another app store or if they sideload," she said.

More details in the full report linked below...

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