Apple recently delayed Siri AI in Europe due to a dispute with European regulators.
Italy is investigating Apple over possible monopoly concerns under the EU’s digital markets law, this time with its iCloud service. Reuters reported. The national digital authority, AGCM, accused the company of not giving third-party cloud storage operators the same access to its iOS and iPadOS operating systems as to its own iCloud service, as required by law. Once its investigation is complete, Italy will send its findings to the European Commission for enforcement, which could result in fines or other measures.
The AGCM authority said it had evidence that third-party consumer cloud services, presumably like Google’s Drive or Microsoft’s OneDrive, did not have the same access as iCloud to certain Apple services or features. “For example, it appears that Apple does not allow alternative cloud storage services to use iOS and iPadOS features that allow end users to perform a full backup of data on their devices, even though these same features are available on Apple’s iCloud,” the regulator wrote.
Apple has yet to comment on the matter, but the company has generally taken a hard line when responding to antitrust allegations. Recently, the company indefinitely delayed Siri AI for iPhones in the EU due to the bloc’s “refusal to engage constructively on solutions that preserve privacy and security,” according to senior vice president Craig Federighi. The company could make a similar argument if the bloc ordered it to open its iOS and iPadOS services to third-party cloud services.
