Apple wants to hire a PR heavyweight to battle the EU on its own soil
Apple has been having no luck arguing against the EU's Digital Markets Act, and it's paid the price in fines and forced changes to its App Store -- so now it's looking for a European head of PR.
Apple logo superimposed on a European Union flag
It perhaps says a lot about Apple's success in promoting itself across Europe that it's not been possible to confirm that the Head of Corporate PR role is actually new. Even in a famously secretive company, the issue of who runs PR shouldn't be a mystery.
And there have definitely been people in charge, they just don't appear to have had this particular title. Tanya Ridd, for instance, was reportedly Apple's head of PR for north and south Europe, which you'd think would just mean Europe.
She led Apple's PR in the EU for a decade, but left back in 2017 to join Snap. She stayed there for four years, before a brief spell at Spotify, and now she's with Polestar.
If Ridd doesn't like it at the EV maker for any reason, Apple could well be glad to see her back. For while it is currently advertising the job of head of corporate PR for Europe, it has been doing so since February 8, 2024.
And the truth is that Apple has also tried advertising it before -- at least once.
There's no way to know how many applicants it considered when advertising the role in January 2024, but apparently it wasn't enough.
It's also not possible to determine what the remuneration is, but the job ad does specify that the work is 35 hours per week. The successful applicant would work in London, but seemingly be a head who is on the same level of the organization as corporate PR managers in Paris and Berlin.
What Apple says is that the job is about "helping us inform the world about Apple and the values that drive our company."
"We develop and implement strategic plans to actively communicate Apple's contribution to Europe and wider society," it continues, "focused on key areas such as our economic contribution, education, customer privacy, and environmental leadership."
Apart from that last consideration regarding the environment, each of those key areas is one where Apple has failed to persuade the EU of its intentions. The EU has now used the Digital Markets Act to fine Apple around $2 billion because of perceived harm to consumers, for instance.
Apple is far from dominating streaming as the EU says it is, and the company has to have concluded that it simply isn't being heard. Or perhaps that Europe-based firm Spotify is being heard more, since Apple has made a point of noting how Spotify has met with EU regulators 65 times.
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Comments
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my rationale is to save apple employees in the US from wasting time on compliance— they need to be making great products for the rest of the world. Just accept that the EU compliance phone is going to kinda suck and stop worrying about it.
I find it more than a little bizarre that when is comes to China, a one-party dictatorship, Apple has no problem with setting aside its presumably democratic and rights-centric values, and yet when it comes to a democratic Europe Apple insists that Apple's values must reign supreme. Odd, really odd.
I might add that, while I often disagree EU dictates, seeing them as paternalistic or dysfunctional, those are Europe's choices and the consequences are their own. Those differences are deeply rooted in the differing cultures of Europe and the U.S. The risk takers came here. The more cautious stayed there. Two centuries that still matters.