Apple Withholds Siri AI from Europe Over DMA Compliance Dispute

Apple's redesigned artificial intelligence assistant will arrive on iPhones and iPads this fall in London and Toronto, but users in Paris and Berlin will be left out. The reason: a standoff between Apple and European regulators over how the Digital Markets Act applies to AI systems.

The European Commission maintains that nothing in the DMA prevents Apple from launching Siri AI in the European Union, and that the decision to withhold the feature is Apple's alone. But according to Apple, the law's requirements create an impossible security dilemma.

The interoperability problem

The DMA mandates that once Siri AI ships in Europe, any competing AI agent must receive identical access to user data — including messages, files, and chat history. Apple proposed implementing a security layer to protect this sensitive information and suggested a phased rollout to ensure safety. The European Commission rejected that approach, Apple says.

The dispute highlights a fundamental mismatch between the DMA's framework and the architecture of modern AI assistants. The law was designed for an era of browsers, app stores, and messaging platforms — components that can be easily swapped out. AI assistants operate differently, integrating deeply with operating systems and touching the most sensitive data users store on their devices.

Why it matters

This case demonstrates how regulations written for one technological paradigm can fail when applied to the next. European consumers now face a choice they didn't ask for: accept older technology or wait indefinitely while regulators and companies negotiate over frameworks that may not fit the underlying systems. The episode also serves as a cautionary tale for other jurisdictions considering similar regulatory approaches to AI and platform competition.

A pattern of unintended consequences

The DMA follows the General Data Protection Regulation as Europe's second major attempt to reshape global technology markets through regulation. The GDPR's track record offers a preview: venture investment in European startups fell by roughly one quarter relative to the United States in the year after the law took effect in 2018. Small firms struggled with compliance costs while large American technology companies, equipped with legal teams, maintained their market positions. Even the privacy compliance software industry that emerged to serve GDPR requirements is dominated by American firms.

Europe's strategy of becoming a "regulatory superpower" — creating a market too large to ignore and thereby exporting its rules globally — has not produced the intended results. When the cost of adapting products for European requirements exceeds the value of European market access, companies increasingly choose to withhold features rather than comply.

Former European Central Bank head Mario Draghi identified Europe's regulatory burden as a drag on competitiveness in a widely praised report to the European Commission. The analysis has not yet translated into policy changes.

The details of Apple's decision were first reported by The Washington Post editorial board.