Apple claims the European Commission is refusing to let to implement App Store changes, instead using "political delay tactics" to levy unfair investigations and fines. Apple provided the statement to Bloomberg in response to MacPaw's decision to shut down alternative iOS app marketplace Setapp Mobile in the EU because of the complicated business terms that it has to deal with.

The European Commission has refused to let us implement the very changes that they requested. In October, we submitted a formal compliance plan and they have yet to respond. The EC is using political delay tactics to mislead the public, move the goal posts, and unfairly target an American company with burdensome investigations and onerous fines.

MacPaw plans to sunset Setapp Mobile in the EU on February 16, 2026. The company said it was shutting down the app because of "complex business terms that don't fit Setapp's current business model," but MacPaw did not go into further detail. Apple does indeed have a complicated fee structure in Europe, for both app marketplaces and the apps that are distributed through them. Apple allows for app marketplaces in the EU because of the Digital Markets Act, which is policed by the European Commission.

The European Commission is gearing up to blame Apple for Setapp's EU shutdown, according to information viewed by Bloomberg. "Apple has not rolled out changes to address the key issues concerning its business terms, including their complexity," the EC reportedly plans to say.

Apple says that it has not simplified its EU business terms as expected because of the European Commission's refusal to let it implement the changes.

Apple further claims that there is little demand for alternative app marketplaces in Europe, and the company said that it is not the reason that Setapp is shutting down.
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U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday there was “no going back” on his goal to bring Greenland under U.S. control, refusing to rule out the use of force and escalating tensions with European allies already bracing for a renewed transatlantic trade dispute.

Trump’s remarks followed a series of social media posts featuring AI-generated images, including one depicting the president standing in Greenland holding a U.S. flag and another showing a map of North America with Canada, Greenland and Venezuela covered by the stars and stripes.

The imagery, shared without official explanation, has fuelled alarm among allies and raised questions about the blurring of political messaging and artificial intelligence at a moment of heightened geopolitical strain.

“As I expressed to everyone, very plainly, Greenland is imperative for National and World Security. There can be no going back — on that, everyone agrees,” Trump said after speaking with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte.

Greenland, a vast Arctic island rich in minerals and strategically located between North America and Europe, is a self-governing territory of Denmark, a fellow NATO member. Trump’s renewed push to acquire it has revived a proposal he first floated during his previous term, but has now been accompanied by explicit warnings of tariffs and the possible use of force.

European leaders reacted with unease. Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen told parliament in Copenhagen that “the worst may still lie ahead.”

“We can negotiate about everything — security, investments, the economy — but we cannot negotiate our most fundamental values: sovereignty, our country’s identity, our borders and our democracy,” Frederiksen said.

At the World Economic Forum in Davos, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen urged the bloc to prepare for a more confrontational era.

“The seismic change we are going through today is an opportunity — in fact a necessity — to build a new form of European independence,” she said.

Trade war fears resurface

Trump has threatened steep tariffs on countries he says stand in the way of U.S. interests, including European allies involved in NATO exercises in Greenland. The European Union has warned it could retaliate with tariffs on up to €93 billion ($101 billion) of U.S. imports if trade measures are imposed.

One option under discussion is the EU’s Anti-Coercion Instrument, a powerful tool that could restrict access to public tenders, investment or services, including digital services where U.S. companies hold a surplus.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent sought to calm markets and dismissed fears of an escalating trade war.

“It’s been 48 hours. Sit back, relax,” Bessent told reporters in Davos. “Calm down the hysteria. Take a deep breath.”

Financial markets were less sanguine. U.S. stock index futures slid to one-month lows, global equities fell, and gold prices touched record highs as investors sought safety.

Canada and Venezuela react

The inclusion of Canada and Venezuela in the AI-generated map added to the controversy.

Canada, a close U.S. ally and NATO member, has previously been the subject of Trump’s rhetoric suggesting it could become the “51st state.” Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said he was “concerned” by the escalation and warned of the implications for North American and transatlantic security.

Canadian officials said Ottawa has drawn up plans to send a small contingent of soldiers to Greenland to participate in NATO military exercises, pending final approval from Carney. Canada already has aircraft and personnel deployed there as part of a NORAD exercise involving the United States.

Venezuela’s government condemned Trump’s post and called on citizens to share the country’s official map online in what officials described as a symbolic defence of sovereignty.

Russia weighs in

Russia, which has closely watched the growing rift between Washington and Europe, questioned Denmark’s sovereignty over Greenland. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the island was the result of “colonial conquest,” while denying Moscow had any designs on the territory.

Protesters also took to the streets in several European cities, including Zurich, where demonstrators carried banners opposing Trump’s appearance at Davos and denouncing what they called imperialist policies.

Despite pushback from allies and some members of Congress, Trump has shown no sign of softening his stance, leaving diplomats and markets braced for further escalation as NATO cohesion and global trade relations come under renewed strain.

The Trump administration is pressuring the European Union to cut down on regulations that impact tech companies like Google, Apple, Amazon, and Meta.


The Office of the United States Trade Representative today posted a message to the European Union on social media, threatening retaliation if the EU continues to target U.S. companies. The post says the U.S. will implement fees and restrictions on foreign services, and it specifically names European companies like Accenture, DHL, Mistral, SAP, Spotify, and Siemens.

The European Union and certain EU Member States have persisted in a continuing course of discriminatory and harassing lawsuits, taxes, fines, and directives against U.S. service providers. U.S. services companies provide substantial free services to EU citizens and reliable enterprise services to EU companies, and they support millions of jobs and more than $100 billion in direct investment in Europe. The United States has raised concerns with the EU for years on these matters without meaningful engagement or basic acknowledgement of U.S. concerns.

If the EU and EU Member States insist on continuing to restrict, limit, and deter the competitiveness of U.S. service providers through discriminatory means, the United States will have no choice but to begin using every tool at its disposal to counter these unreasonable measures. Should responsive measures be necessary, U.S. law permits the assessment of fees or restrictions on foreign services, among other actions. The United States will take a similar approach to other countries that pursue an EU-style strategy in this area.

The EU's Digital Markets Act (DMA) and Digital Services Act (DSA) have forced Apple and other tech companies to make major changes to their services in the European Union, and several companies have faced fines. Earlier this year, Apple was fined 500 million euros and Meta was fined 200 million euros. Just this month, social network X was fined 120 million euros for DSA violations, and in September, Google was fined 2.95 billion euros for antitrust violations related to its adtech business.

Separately, the U.S. House Judiciary Committee held a hearing today on the threat that "discriminatory foreign regulations" modeled after the Digital Markets Act pose to American innovation and competition. Witnesses included Competere Ltd. CEO Shanker Singham, Notre Dame Law professor Roger Alford, George Washington Competition and Innovation Lab Founding Director Aurelien Portuese, and Dirk Auer, Director of Competition Policy for the International Center for Law and Economics.

During the hearing, Representative Scott Fitzgerald said the DMA isn't aimed at protecting consumers, but hobbling American companies.

The DMA does not ask whether consumers have been harmed. It does not even ask whether a business has done anything wrong. It asks whether a company is large, successful, and, most importantly, American. If the answer is yes, the rules suddenly change. Common business practices are banned, innovation is treated as a threat, and foreign rivals are handed access to data and technology they could never build or earn on their own. That is not competition policy. That's forced redistribution.

The Computer and Communications Industry Association said the DMA is discriminatory because it only applies to select companies, while NetChoice said the EU has "provided countries around the world with a blueprint" for similar regulatory measures.

Unlike traditional antitrust and competition laws that apply to all companies, however, these DMA prohibitions apply only to designated companies, creating discriminatory treatment between designated and non-designated companies, where undesignated foreign rivals gain an unfair competitive advantage over designated American companies.

President Donald Trump has previously criticized the "very unfair" European Union for fines levied on Apple and Google. In September, he threatened the EU with higher tariffs, which would disrupt trade framework established in July 2025. Trump said Apple should "get their money back" and that the U.S. "cannot let this happen to brilliant and unprecedented American Ingenuity."
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Apple recently sent a letter to the European Commission (EC), criticizing recent inquiries into whether the App Store complies with the Digital Services Act (DSA) amid the separate Digital Markets Act requirements that Apple has been required to put in place.


The Commission asked Apple for information on how it locates fraudulent content, what it does to reduce the risk of financial scams in apps, and how it verifies the identity of businesses. It separately requested details on the policies Apple has in place to protect minors. Both requests were part of an inquiry into whether companies are complying with Digital Services Act requirements.

Apple's response, penned by Apple VP of Legal Kyle Andeer, answers all of the EC's questions and includes the relevant information to satisfy the request, but also points out the hypocrisy of questioning ‌App Store‌ consumer protections while requiring Apple to support sideloading functionality that isn't subject to those protections.

Andeer says that it is "difficult to square" the DSA investigations with the EC's "aggressive interpretation and application of the Digital Markets Act," and that the probe into Apple's ‌App Store‌ safeguards "defies all logic" in light of the DMA requirements. He also argues that the European Commission needs to enforce the DSA and DMA as a whole, rather than as separate policies.

It does not make sense for the Commission to press Apple to protect users, including minors, from fraud within the App Store while at the same time requiring Apple to create functionalities like link-outs and web views that increase the risk of fraud without necessary safeguards.

The Commission cannot both prohibit Apple from taking the steps it has found essential in mitigating the risk of scams and fraud on the App Store while simultaneously scrutinizing Apple for not providing even more measures to mitigate these risks on the App Store. It does not make sense for one EU law to encourage Apple to mitigate as much as possible the risk of exposing consumers to fraud or minors to potentially harmful apps through the App Store, only for another EU law to prevent Apple from using those same measures to mitigate the same type of risks just because they exist outside of the App Store. This paradoxical situation creates a regulatory structure that endorses leaving iOS and iPadOS users at risk if they choose not to use the App Store, when developers choose to use link-outs, or when users opt to use third-party products to interoperate with iOS or iPadOS. [...]

If the Commission does not consistently prioritise protecting consumers from online harms like fraud, or minors from online harms like pornography or other unsafe apps, in all enforcement contexts, including the DMA, nor use the tools it has at its disposal to resolve these fundamental frictions, the objectives of the DSA will be underachieved, no matter how sufficient Apple's measures are to comply with this specific regulation.

For context, the Digital Services Act requires very large online platforms like Apple to offer protection against disinformation or election manipulation, cyber violence against women, and harms to minors online. It also has provisions to counter fraud and mitigate dissemination of illegal content, among other requirements.

The separate Digital Markets Act requires Apple to support alternative app marketplaces and adhere to interoperability rules that Apple has continually argued weaken privacy and security. Andeer says that the Digital Markets Act "exposes users to fraud and scams" on third-party platforms, and the EC has been warned that the DMA enforcement is "reckless and even dangerous."

Apple's App Review team removed 37,000 apps for fraudulent activity in 2024, rejected 115,000 apps for unsafe experiences, and rejected 320,000 app submissions that copied other apps, were found to be spam, or misled users in some way. Further, 139,000 developer enrollments were rejected, and 146,000 developer accounts were terminated due to fraud concerns.
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Apple in iOS 26.2 will disable automatic Wi-Fi network syncing between iPhone and Apple Watch in the European Union to comply with the bloc's regulations, suggests a new report.


Normally, when an iPhone connects to a new Wi-Fi network, it automatically shares the network credentials with the paired Apple Watch. This allows the watch to connect to the same network independently – for example, when the iPhone isn't nearby – without the user needing to enter the password manually.

The feature's removal appears to be Apple's response to the European Commission's Digital Markets Act (DMA) interoperability requirements, which Apple has publicly criticized on more than one occasion. Under the DMA, regulators want Apple to open iPhone Wi-Fi hardware access to third-party accessories by the end of 2025.

The year-end compliance deadline coincides with next month's release of iOS 26.2. But rather than comply with the requirement, Apple is apparently disabling the feature entirely for EU users. Apple reportedly confirmed the decision to French publication Numerama.

In terms of the practical impact, it's likely to be limited for most users. Apple Watch will surely still connect to Wi-Fi networks when the paired iPhone is nearby, but users may be required to manually connect to Wi-Fi by typing in the password when the iPhone is out of range. Afterwards, the Wi-Fi network's credentials will presumably be stored on the watch.

Apple has previously warned that complying with EU interoperability requirements could give "data-hungry companies" access to sensitive information, including notification content and complete Wi-Fi network histories. Apple has explicitly called out Meta for making multiple unreasonable interoperability requests under the DMA that if allowed could compromise user security and privacy.

Apple filed an appeal against the interoperability rules at the EU's General Court in Luxembourg on May 30, targeting the Commission's March decision that requires Apple to make iOS more compatible with rival products including smartwatches, headphones, and VR headsets.
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Apple's new M5 MacBook Pro will ship without a power adapter in the box in the United Kingdom and European Union, prompting online confusion that the change was mandated by EU law — a claim that is incorrect.


Apple quietly updated its online store following the launch of the M5 ‌MacBook Pro‌ to note that customers in the UK and EU who purchase the new 14-inch model will no longer receive a charging brick by default. The laptop still includes a MagSafe 3 cable, but buyers must purchase a compatible USB-C power adapter separately. The change does not apply to other markets such as the United States, where a 70W USB-C Power Adapter remains included at no extra cost.

The omission led some observers to suggest that the decision was required under new European environmental regulations. Some claimed that the European Union had banned manufacturers from including power adapters with new electronics in order to reduce electronic waste, but this is not the case.

The confusion appears to stem from the EU's 2022 Common Charger Directive, legislation designed to standardize charging ports and give consumers flexibility when purchasing new devices. The directive requires that all smartphones, tablets, and laptops sold within the EU use USB-C for wired charging. It also stipulates that consumers must be offered the option to buy a device without a charger to limit unnecessary e-waste.

The law "ensures that consumers will be able to purchase new electronic devices without having to obtain a new charger each time," but it does not prevent manufacturers from supplying one. In practice, this means companies must provide a version of each product that can be purchased without an adapter, while retaining the freedom to include a charger or offer it free of charge.

Apple's decision to remove the charger entirely from the EU boxes therefore goes beyond what the law requires. The company could, for example, offer customers the option to include a charger at checkout for no additional cost, as long as it also sells a version without one. The lack of charger in the UK is even more unnecessary, since it is not part of the European Union.

The move to charge separately for adapters is therefore a business choice by Apple, not a legal necessity. The company's approach simplifies logistics and packaging, avoiding the need for separate SKUs in Europe, but it also shifts the cost to customers who do not already own a compatible charger.

Apple has historically argued that omitting power bricks from its packaging is part of a wider environmental effort. The company first removed the charger from iPhone boxes in 2020, citing the environmental benefits of smaller packaging and fewer redundant accessories. Similar reasoning has since extended to other product lines. By reducing the size and weight of shipments, Apple says it can cut carbon emissions and limit use of resources across its supply chain.

The M5 ‌MacBook Pro‌ continues to support both ‌MagSafe‌ and USB-C charging. Customers can use existing 67W, 96W, or 140W USB-C adapters to charge the device, depending on the configuration. Apple sells its own USB-C power adapters separately, and the company's online product pages now prominently note that "power adapter sold separately" for the affected regions.

Pricing adjustments partly offset the omission in some regions, although shifts in currency exchange rates likely also factored into Apple's pricing changes as is common. In several European countries, the new 14-inch ‌MacBook Pro‌ is approximately €100 cheaper than its predecessor, but the UK model retains the same starting price.
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Apple is nearing a settlement with the European Commission to resolve multiple antitrust investigations under the Digital Markets Act (DMA), in a move aimed at averting escalating daily fines that could reach up to 5% of its average global revenue, the Financial Times reports.


Both Apple and Meta are reportedly in the final stages of talks with European regulators following a combined €700 million in fines issued in April 2025 for breaching the EU's flagship digital competition law. According to officials briefed on the discussions, both companies are negotiating changes to their business practices to ensure full compliance and avoid further penalties.

For Apple, the settlement discussions center on the European Commission's ongoing investigations into the App Store. Regulators previously found that Apple restricted developers from directing users to offers outside its platform, in violation of the DMA's anti-steering provisions. The company was fined €500 million in April and ordered to amend its practices.

In June, Apple announced several modifications to its ‌App Store‌ framework for the European Union, including allowing developers to promote alternative payment options and distribute iOS apps via external marketplaces for the first time.

European Commission officials told the Financial Times that talks with Apple remain ongoing over the company's new contractual terms for developers and whether they sufficiently remove barriers to fair competition. The Commission has sought assurances that developers are free to communicate directly with users about external pricing or promotions without facing additional fees or restrictions from Apple.

Under the DMA, designated "gatekeepers" such as Apple must not favor their own services over rivals and must allow fair access to their platforms. The law represents one of the European Union's most far-reaching efforts to curb the power of large technology companies. Violations can trigger substantial daily fines, potentially reaching billions of euros for repeat offenses.

Apple maintains that it is already in compliance with EU law and appealed the Commission's initial decision, arguing that the regulator's interpretation goes beyond what the DMA requires. The Commission is still collecting input from developers and other stakeholders on Apple's proposed adjustments.

Officials close to the discussions expressed optimism that a resolution could be reached soon. The outcome of the case is expected to have wide-ranging implications for the company's operations in Europe, influencing how it manages the ‌App Store‌ and more.
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