Technology

Apple CEO Tim Cook criticizes European law that would break App Store hold


Tim Cook, chief executive officer of Apple, speaks at the 2019 Dreamforce conference in San Francisco on November 19, 2019.

David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Apple CEO Tim Cook said that he believes a proposed European law known as DMA would “not be in the best interest of users,” signaling the iPhone maker’s opposition to European legislation that would force it to allow users to install software outside of Apple’s App Store.

“I look at the tech regulation that’s being discussed, I think there are good parts of it. And I think there are parts of it that are not in the best interests of the user,” Cook said on Wednesday through videoconference at the Viva Tech conference in France.

The European Union proposed two laws regulating big tech companies, the Digital Services Act and the Digital Markets Act, earlier this year. The DSA focuses on the online ad industry, but the DMA focuses on companies with large numbers of customers — like Apple, Google and Amazon — and sets rules requiring them to open up their platforms to competitors.

One of Cook’s issues with the law is that it would force Apple to permit sideloading apps on the iPhone, which is manually installing software from the internet or a file instead of through an app store. Currently, Apple’s App Store is the only way to install apps on an iPhone, which has made it the focus of lawsuits and regulators around the world. Apple has claimed that its control over the App Store ensures high-quality apps and helps prevent malware.

Cook noted that the iPhone’s market share in France is only 23% and said that permitting sideloading on iPhones would damage both the privacy and security of users, citing increased malware on Android phones versus iPhones. Google’s Android allows sideloading.

“If you take an example of where I don’t think it’s in the best interest, that the current DMA language that is being discussed, would force sideloading on the iPhone,” Cook said. “And so this would be an alternate way of getting apps onto the iPhone, as we look at that, that would destroy the security of the iPhone.”

Cook said that Apple would participate in the debate over the proposed regulation, and said that he thought that some parts of the DSA are “right on,” citing that it would regulate platforms with disinformation pushing issues like vaccine hesitancy.

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