The Digital Markets Act (DMA) has a significant impact on how Apple products operate in the EU. For example, Apple was forced to allow iPhone users in the EU to install and use third-party marketplaces on the platform. Recent comments from European Commission President Margrethe Vestager could fundamentally change the way iOS handles photos.
The European Commission recently published remarks from two leaders, Margrethe Vestager and Thierry Breton, regarding non-compliance with the DMA.discoverer bold fireball John Gruber spoke to Vestager about how Apple failed to fully comply with the regulation.
Vestager noted in comments:
Under Article 6(3) of the DMA, gatekeepers are obliged to enable easy uninstallation of applications and easy changes to default settings. They must also display a selection screen. Apple’s compliance model appears to fall short of the objectives of this obligation… Apple has also failed to make several apps uninstallable upon request (one of which is Photos) and prevents end users from changing their default states (e.g. cloud) via DMA.
The comments suggest that Apple should make any app on its platform uninstallable. The passing mention of the Photos app hints that Vestager believes the app should also be uninstallable.
As Gruber points out, this won’t be an easy task for the company because the Photos app is system-level software. This would require a massive rewrite of Apple’s operating system. According to Gruber:
Photos is more than just an app on iOS; it’s a system-wide interface to the Camera Roll. This is integrated throughout the iOS system, and each app will have permission prompts to grant different levels of access to photos.
Vestager said that in order to comply with the requirements of the DMA, Apple needs to allow third-party applications to act as system-level image libraries and camera rolls. This is a huge need, and honestly I don’t even know how to combine such a need with system-wide photo access.
Although Vestager mentioned the Photos app, it’s unclear whether the European Commission will force Apple to make this specific change. If that’s the case, it wouldn’t be surprising if Apple starts questioning whether to stay in the EU.