The EU's highest court for this type of case rejected Apple's argument that its five separate app stores, covering iPhone, Mac, iPad, Apple Watch, and Apple TV, should be treated as five separate things rather than one unified platform. The court found the opposite: all five stores do the same job, connecting developers with users, so they all fall under the same rules.
That matters because the EU's Digital Markets Act (DMA), which came into force in March 2024, places strict obligations on companies it designates as "gatekeepers." A gatekeeper is essentially a company so large and central to digital life that other businesses depend on it to reach customers. Apple, along with Google, Meta, Amazon, Microsoft, and a handful of others, received that designation.
The obligations are significant. Apple must allow third-party app stores on iPhone in the EU, let developers point users to payment options outside Apple's system without charging Apple's standard commission, and give rival hardware makers access to iPhone features that Apple's own devices use. Think: a non-Apple smartwatch being able to show your iPhone notifications the same way an Apple Watch does.
Apple has not taken this quietly. It has argued consistently that the DMA creates security and privacy risks by forcing it to open parts of its system to competitors it cannot vet. Those arguments have now been rejected in court for the second major time. Apple has not said yet whether it will appeal further.
The EU already followed up with a €500 million fine in April 2025, the first penalty ever issued under the DMA, after regulators found that Apple was still preventing developers from steering customers toward cheaper deals outside the App Store. Regulators noted that Apple's non-compliance was considered serious given it covered all 27 EU countries and affected roughly 130 million App Store users.
The tension has a visible consumer cost already. When Apple unveiled its new AI-powered Siri in June 2026, it confirmed the feature will not be available on iPhone or iPad for EU users when the software ships later this year. Apple says regulators rejected every proposal it submitted to bring the feature to Europe while maintaining what it considers necessary privacy protections. The EU's position is that Apple cannot launch a feature that tightly integrates its own voice assistant unless competing assistants get equivalent access to the same device capabilities.
For businesses that operate in Europe and use Apple hardware, software, or the App Store in any way, this ruling confirms the direction of travel: Apple's control over its platform in Europe is being structurally reduced, step by step. That means more options for buying apps and paying for services, but also a less predictable environment while Apple and the EU continue fighting over exactly how far those obligations extend.
Two more Apple cases are still pending before EU courts: one challenging a decision to open iOS to third-party developers more broadly, and one contesting the €500 million fine. Neither will be resolved quickly, and neither outcome will reverse what the court confirmed today.