Enforcement of the European Digital Markets Act means that Apple cannot launch the program safely within the EU, the company said.
Apple’s new AI interface ‘Siri AI’ will not be available to EU users of its phones, tablets and smartwatches when the company launches its new apps for devices later this year.
The company said that due to restrictions imposed and enforced by the European Digital Markets Act (DMA), it could not safely integrate Siri AI in iOS 27, iPadOS 27 and watchOS 27 running on European iPhones, iPads and Apple Watches.
Apple said that solutions for the parallel integration of Siri AI for European users – which could also support other, rival assistants in a safe way – that it proposed to the EU “a few months ago” had not been adopted.
“We’re very disappointed that our EU users won’t have Siri AI on iPhone or iPad when we share our new software releases later this year,” said Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of software engineering.
“Our hope is to eventually bring Siri AI to the EU, and we will continue to engage with EU regulators on the way forward. However, their refusal to engage constructively on privacy and security solutions means that we currently have no timeline for the availability of Siri AI on iOS and iPadOS in the EU.”
The disagreement centers on what Apple says is Europe’s “extreme definition of DMA” which would require the company to give any virtual assistant “direct access to private user data – and the ability to directly control other installed applications – as soon as Siri AI is made available in the EU, without the necessary safeguards needed to keep users and their data safe”.
Apple showed off a newly redesigned AI interface at the Worldwide Developers Conference yesterday (June 8), but said “clear risks for EU users” and “regulators’ failure to acknowledge these risks” would block its availability in the bloc.
The company said, however, that EU users of its computers and mixed reality headsets will be able to access Siri AI in macOS 27 and visionOS 27, respectively.
Forrester’s vice president and principal analyst Dipanjan Chatterjee described the new AI integration, which has been updated as “a very capable, context-aware, conversational assistant”, but said its success “will depend on delivering the new Siri experience quickly, and making sure it works as promised for iPhone users at scale”.
Apple has previously advocated for the EU to remove the DMA, saying antitrust law “forces” the company to make “regarding changes” in the way it delivers its services to European users.
Passed in 2022, the DMA aims to crack down on anti-competitive behavior from Big Tech companies and scale the online digital marketplace.
Last summer, Apple changed its App Store policies for EU users in an effort to comply with the DMA.
In April, the company announced plans to change leadership from Tim Cook to John Ternus, just before reporting its “best March quarter ever” with revenue of $111.2bn.
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