It took a few years, but Apple is finally making its AI look useful. Now millions of iPhone users in Europe are being told they won’t be getting Siri AI anytime soon, if at all – and Apple wants them to blame the EU.
Apple says its new AI-powered Siri won’t be launched on iPhones and iPads in the European Union because of the Digital Markets Act, the bloc’s competition law designed to prevent powerful tech companies from acting as gatekeepers to their own platforms to shut out rivals. Essentially, the DMA requires platforms to provide their competitors with the same types of data access that they enjoy, with a few exceptions such as ensuring that their system is not tampered with.
This interoperability requirement means giving groups like OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic — and any other potential Siri competitors — equal access to Apple’s systems. For an assistant designed to look across apps, personal information, photos, messages, and videos and take action on users, that’s a lot of reach.
For Apple, that’s more than reaching out to third parties. Doing so would jeopardize the privacy and security of its customers, Apple says, so much so that it would prefer to withhold Siri AI from Europe rather than build it on Brussels terms and let others in. Apple said it has proposed solutions, such as the Trusted System Agent, which will act as a mediator between rival AI agents and Apple systems, offering the same levels of access and capability. Apple said it would need 18 months to implement it “gradually”. Apple said the European Commission rejected this and its other proposals and, as things stand, said “there is currently no timeline for the availability of Siri AI in the EU on iOS and iPadOS.”
On the other hand, the European Commission does not say anything about its rules that prevent Apple from introducing new features.
“Nothing in the DMA prohibits Apple from introducing new products and services in the EU,” said European Commission spokesman Ricardo Cardoso. The Verge. Cardoso said the Commission “has been in constant communication with Apple” on the issue, but added that “Apple has not developed proposals for interoperability solutions compatible with DMA.”
That leaves the two sides at odds. Apple insists that complying with EU rules would jeopardize the privacy of its customers so much that it chooses not to release the AI assistant it has been building for years. The Commission, on the other hand, says that Apple is using its power to block competitors and limit consumer choice. “It is not up to them to decide who will innovate, or to choose which AI tools EU citizens will use,” Cardoso said.
“Apple’s privacy and security model is built like a Jenga tower, based on controlling the company’s extreme posture, and the risks of collapsing when interactions are introduced.”
Apple is clearly hoping that the court of public opinion will rule in its favor. The company took the unusual step of devoting part of its WWDC 2026 keynote to explaining why Siri AI won’t be coming to Europe, then published a blog post with the headline on the matter: “Due to DMA, Siri AI is delayed in the EU for iOS 27 and iPadOS 27.” It also held press conferences mainly on the European issue. China will also miss out on Siri AI, again due to regulatory challenges. That was conveyed in a one-sentence footnote.
It’s a typical Apple strategy. The company has a history of invoking privacy and security concerns when regulators try to get it to open up parts of its popular ecosystem. It has already criticized DMA interoperability requirements for handling AirPods live streaming and iPhone mirroring in the EU, as well as Maps features. Those concerns are often real and legitimate, but they are also among Apple’s most effective arguments for maintaining control over its vast technology empire.
Friso Bostoen, a professor of competition law and digital regulation at Tilburg University in the Netherlands, said there are real security and privacy risks in forcing platforms to open up their systems. But Apple’s security-focused arguments aren’t always considered, Bostoen said, pointing to recent court cases in the UK and US where judges were skeptical of the company’s claims.
Jan Penfrat, senior policy advisor for European Digital Rights (EDRi), a network of NGOs, experts, and activists campaigning for digital rights across Europe, sees Apple’s latest move as a way to put pressure on the EU Commission to let it break the DMA. “It’s a great strategy to persuade people,” he said. “The problem is not DMA but Apple’s refusal to open up its software to the competition.”
For Michael Veale, a professor of technology law and policy at University College London, the main problem is that Apple is making changes to its long-standing privacy and security setup “to stay relevant and in the game” when it comes to AI. “Apple’s privacy and security model is built like a Jenga tower, based on controlling the company’s extreme posture, and the risks of collapsing when interactions are introduced.” In other words: Apple’s luxury is to change its Siri AI processes, which gives the AI the ability to access more data across different applications, but says the same type of access is more dangerous when competitors ask for it.
Veale and Penfrat both said there’s no way to properly test Apple’s proposed solution because the company hasn’t made it public yet. Some experts, such as Bostoen, asked why Apple needed 18 months to implement it, given that the interaction requirements were predictable and should have been solved in conjunction with the development of Siri AI.
Finally, Apple is playing a big game of chicken with Europe. The EU is a huge market, and Apple has every incentive to find a way to bring Siri AI there eventually, especially as it becomes a bigger part of the iPhone experience. Apple was able to include USB-C chargers in its products when Europe forced the issue. Will Europe force the AI issue with Apple now, or will Brussels be the first to blink?
Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
