EU's latest demand on Apple about geolocking is unforgivably naive
The European Union has told Apple to stop geo-locking, where apps and services vary in different countries -- entirely ignoring decades of laws and practices by other industries that have nothing to do with the App Store.
EU wants the impossible with Apple's App Store
Give the EU credit, it has implemented the kind of laws regarding Big Tech that other countries, including the US, are still only talking about. But in this case, its assumption that it can simply mandate how the rest of the entire world works is an excoriating overreach.
The new demand is that Apple stop geo-locking, and specifically that EU users must be able to:
- Use the same interface as in other countries
- Use credit cards registered in different countries
- Download apps not available in their home country
That first point is hard to follow, and the EU's full description is no clearer. It claims that "consumers are only allowed to access the interface made for the country where they have registered their Apple account."
Yet Apple Music is Apple Music wherever you are, it's the music on it that might differ. There are countries where some services such as Apple Music are not available at all, but that doesn't seem to be the EU's point.
The second point about how Apple must stop preventing EU users using credit cards or other payment systems from different countries, is also a bit odd. If you're based outside of the US, you may already be familiar with how no US firm will refuse to take your money.
Which leaves the last part, the issue that Apple must stop the way that "consumers are not allowed to download the apps offered in other countries." This is the part that isn't just odd, it is downright embarrassing because it means the European Union has no clue.
International rights agreements
Forget Apple, this is not an Apple issue. The reason that some apps are not available in some countries is exactly the same as why "Saturday Night Live" is not shown in the UK.
Or why "Star Trek" can sometimes be on Paramount+ in the US, but Netflix in France, and another service entirely in Spain.
Rights to properties like TV shows, films, apps, books, and every single form of media ever created, are intensely complex and no EU demand is going to undo decades of contracts and legal precedent.
Curiously, apps might be the easiest form of media to make available worldwide -- in theory. Developers actually have the option to say their app should be released globally when they upload it.
But in practice, if the EU were able to force through this ridiculous idea, developers would be hit as badly as any other creator.
The problem for developers
If you are required to have your app available in every country, you are now bound by the laws of every single country. That includes the tax laws, though if you exclusively sell your app through the App Store, Apple handles the tax.
Except of course the EU has forced Apple to allow third-party app stores. So either those third-party stores would have to take on global tax, or the developers would.
Then few developers actually create absolutely every element of their apps. They might commission graphic designers, they might use stock images, they could licence music.
Every element of every app would have to be cleared for international use if the EU got its way. That's even if an app were for the Cook County Parish Council, it would still have be available everywhere.
How we got here and how we're staying
If media including apps were starting now, maybe the global situation would be different. Maybe all licenses and all tax would be the same.
But it isn't and it's not going to be, no matter what the EU wishes.
For as well as the costs of any individual app or media, there are other issues. DVD region coding was specifically created so that studios had control over when their films were released where.
They might even have wanted to have movies released worldwide instantly, but they can't afford it. Marketing campaigns run in stages, launching movies around the world is an investment that can equal the hundreds of millions of dollars spent on the film's production.
Or take Apple itself. Apple launched Apple Card in the US in 2019 and it appears that according to the EU, that should never have been limited to the States.
The EU constantly says that it is implementing laws explicitly for the good of the consumer and against Big Tech dominance. But developers are consumers too, creators are, marketing people are.
The burden that the EU's move would place on all of them would be unsupportable. Only dominant big tech could possibly afford to release apps or other media.
And if this were even physically possible, such a law change would see every one of them passing the massively increased costs on to the consumer.
Politicians are frighteningly ill-informed
We've seen individual politicians be shockingly, shamefully ignorant of the issues they attempt to pass laws on. But for all the truly superb work that the European Union and the European Commission do, this overreach is a staggering result of what purports to be serious consideration.
Specifically, the EU's document announcing this says that it follows "a coordinated investigation at European level." The Consumer Protection Network (CPC) "of national consumer authorities and the European Commission" is led what is actually described as "competent" national authorities.
According to the EU, Apple now has one month in which to respond and to "propose commitments on how they will address the identified geo-blocking practices."
"If Apple fails to address the concerns raised by the CPC Network, national authorities can take enforcement measures to ensure compliance," continues the EU.
There is a note that depending "on Apple's reply, the CPC Network may enter into a dialogue with the company."
You bet there'll be a dialogue. One side is going to say something along the lines of "in your dreams."
Read on AppleInsider
Comments
https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/es/ip_24_5727
specifically calls for equal access WITHIN THE EU.
I don’t understand the point of this article — it feels like it’s arguing against something that isn’t even on the table.
Really, Apple and Google should just tell the EU to piss off and buy Nokia phones running Symbian.
Completely agree here. This was a hastily written article that does not attempt to understand or articulate the nuance in what the EU Commission is saying. This is about letting EU citizens travel anywhere within the EU without being geo-fenced by Apple. EU citizens, it should be noted, can travel anywhere within the EU without a passport, using a common currency among many other shared benefits and policies. Imagine if Apple geo-fenced people who created their Apple Account in Alaska so that if they traveled to Texas they wouldn't be able to see half of their music. The US would regulate them to stop that behavior (and rightly so). That is what this is about, it's just countries in the EU rather than states in the US. It has nothing to do with anyone outside of the EU, or how Apple treats EU citizens while they are outside of the EU.
My advice to AppleInsider? Stick to reporting about rumors, news, hardware and software reviews, etc., and abort these opinion pieces. While one would expect them to have a pro-Apple slant, the analysis is poor and authors come across as bratty, entitled toddlers who don't actually know anything about the topic other than that it is a reason to kick and scream because a big meanie is trying to antagonize Apple.
More to the point however the EU is nowhere nearly as established as the US is. It’s more like the US was before the Civil War, a collection of states that share some rules. The central government is trying to assert its authority, but there has been a lot of pushback, especially from the former Soviet Block states. They simply aren’t where they need to be to establish a uniform set of rules that Apple and other companies could follow across the whole of the EU.
But for apps, some things can be really stupid. Take Lidl Plus app - you can switch withing the app to various countries they operate, agree with their local conditions and you can use it - Czech republic, Slovakia, Germany, Italy, Spain… So far so good.
But McDonald’s app - when you try to change the country eg from Czech republic to Germany, the app says - you cannot use this app, you need to download McDonald’s Germany app… with a link to the store. But because your Apple Account is CZ, the German store says that you cannot download the German app. And now who’s fault is that? Apple’s, because they allow the regional limitations in the store? Or McDonald’s because they decided to limit their German app just to Germany App Store? I never understood this and find it confusing.
Just curious about other people’s point of view about this…
How is that making a better experience when developers have to spend more time researching international law than actual development?
That being said, I’m all for the sentiment because content and apps might be available to others but not me. But to fix this problem you’d essentially have to ditch the governments of every country and rule from a single entity and the only entity at the moment that could do that is the UN. Good luck pushing that idea.
Why do we keep getting the same kind of articles and reactions on everything EU?
Would be nice if those not getting the Single Market or EU did a bit of reading before hitting the keyboard.
the single market eu is a beatifull dream that is far from reality, the different states are more moving in the other direction, as mentioned before the eu isn't in anyway working towards a single vat, dividing more than getting together. the uk totally went out, austria, denmarken, germany and holland rebuilded their borders, how do you mean single market? (Amazon is blocking sales based on location, I don't know about google and I'm not sure that telling the eu to piss off is a solution to the problem)
These are not demands for how Apple and others will need to act on the international stage, but purely how Apple needs to follow the ground principal of harmonic rules within the EU inner market which aims are to make it easier to move, work and live within the EU/ EEA inner market.
Can you for instance imagine if you as an American would be denied by Apple and others to bring the Apple content you have purchased in California with you to Florida? That Apple would demand that you had to purchase the content again, like they do with me and my content which I have purchased during the past 20 years from iTunes (movies and music)?
During these 20 years I've moved from Norway, to Germany and to the UK. These are daily issues many Europeans are facing as the EU has changed into one large open market where people are allowed to move freely around. And can you imagine if Apple and others demanded that you had to use a credit card from California for online purchases simply because you live in California? What if you move to an other state? These are the kind of issues Europeans have had to deal with from Apple and others for the past 30 years or so.
There can be differences but compliance is not an issue for anyone.
There is nothing repressive about it as the EU 27 will all have had a say in the issue.