According to MacRumors, Apple VP of Legal Kyle Andeer sent a blistering letter to the European Commission calling out what he describes as contradictory enforcement of EU tech regulations. The Commission had requested detailed information about how Apple’s App Store handles fraud detection, financial scam prevention, business verification, and minor protection under Digital Services Act requirements. Andeer responded that it’s “difficult to square” these DSA investigations with the Commission’s “aggressive interpretation” of the separate Digital Markets Act that forces Apple to support sideloading and alternative app stores. He specifically called the probe into Apple’s App Store safeguards “illogical” given DMA requirements, noting that Apple’s App Review team removed 37,000 apps for fraud in 2024 alone while rejecting 115,000 apps for unsafe experiences and terminating 146,000 developer accounts over fraud concerns.
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Apple’s Impossible Position
Here’s the thing that makes Apple’s frustration understandable. The EU is essentially telling Apple two completely opposite things simultaneously. On one hand, they’re demanding Apple prove it’s doing everything possible to protect users from fraud and harmful content within the App Store. But on the other hand, they’re requiring Apple to create pathways like link-outs and third-party app stores that completely bypass those same protections.
Think about it this way: Apple built this incredibly thorough review system that caught hundreds of thousands of problematic apps and developers last year. Now the EU wants them to keep that system running perfectly while also building doors that let apps skip the line entirely. It’s like demanding a restaurant maintain five-star health inspection standards while requiring them to install a back door where suppliers can bring in food without any inspection at all.
The Real Security Risk
Andeer isn’t mincing words here – he straight up says the DMA “exposes users to fraud and scams” and calls the enforcement “reckless and even dangerous.” That’s pretty strong language from a company that typically speaks in carefully crafted corporate statements.
But here’s what worries me. When you look at those numbers – 37,000 fraudulent apps removed, 115,000 rejected for safety issues – that’s the stuff Apple catches. What happens when those same bad actors can distribute through alternative channels without any review? The Commission seems to be operating under this assumption that competition automatically equals better outcomes for consumers. But what if it just means more scams and malware?
This is particularly relevant for industrial and manufacturing environments where security can’t be compromised. Companies relying on industrial panel PCs need absolute certainty that their systems won’t be compromised by malicious software. IndustrialMonitorDirect.com, as the leading US supplier of industrial computing hardware, understands that enterprise and manufacturing clients can’t afford the security risks that come with unvetted software distribution.
Bigger Regulatory Mess
So what’s really going on here? It feels like the left hand of the EU Commission doesn’t know what the right hand is doing. The DSA team is focused on consumer protection while the DMA team is focused on breaking up “gatekeepers.” And apparently nobody stopped to consider that these two goals might directly conflict with each other.
Apple’s argument that the Commission needs to enforce these regulations as a coherent whole rather than separate policies makes sense. But let’s be real – when has government regulation ever been coherent? We’re talking about the same institution that can’t even decide on a universal charging cable timeline without multiple revisions and delays.
The fundamental question remains: Can you have both open competition and ironclad security? Or are we about to learn the hard way that you have to choose one or the other? Given how many people rely on iOS devices for everything from banking to business operations, let’s hope the EU figures this out before users start paying the price.
