After Apple threatened to remove iCloud features due to the UK government seeking a backdoor on users’ encrypted data, the company is now warning the region against adding “EU-style rules,” which could result in the delaying of features for its UK users.
According to the BBC, Apple is trying to avoid intervention from the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), a regulation similar to the EU’s Digital Markets Act, which the company has been required to follow for over a year.
Now, the company says the CMA’s approach “undermines the privacy and security protections our users have come to expect, hampers our ability to innovate, and forces us to give away our technology for free to foreign competitors.” With the CMA, the UK wants to give developers more tools to thrive and create better apps, so Apple would have to allow third-party marketplaces, payment systems, and even better interoperability between third-party devices, such as smartwatches.
That said, if the UK forces Apple to comply with the CMA, the company could delay features for iPhone, iPad, and Mac users.
This is everything delayed or unavailable for European customers
With iOS 26 expected to be released in a couple of weeks, European users will be left behind on some features, as they already are on others.
Introduced with iOS 18 and macOS Sequoia, EU users don’t have access to iPhone Mirroring. This feature lets users mirror their iPhone display on the Mac, offering the ability to control your iPhone as if you’re using it, but without reaching for it. Consequently, the new Live Activities feature for macOS Tahoe is also nowhere near being available for these users, as it relies on the iPhone Mirroring technology.
Apple also says that the upcoming Visited Places feature coming to Apple Maps will not be available to European users. The company stated that it delays features like this due to privacy and security.
Finally, Apple delayed for a few months the introduction of Apple Intelligence in the region. While most users had access to it by iOS 18.1, the company only made it available in Europe with iOS 18.4. That said, if the UK follows Europe with its version of the DMA, Apple might make iPhone Mirroring, Live Activities on the Mac, and Visited Places unavailable in the region.
