Open Web Advocacy

A dog's breakfast.Far from taking Apple's long history of non-compliance on board, the CMA seems prepared to pretend the past few years of Apple's active obstruction and prevarication – about which they issued groundbreaking reports proving harm to UK users and developers – didn't happen.

OWA NEW REPORT 🚨 Apple’s interoperability “commitments” in the UK 🇬🇧 are a smokescreen: 👉 No obligation to share anything 👉 Broad excuses to say no 👉 Fees for APIs 👉 No public transparency They can comply… and change nothing 😬 The primary issue is that Apple can reject any interoperability request: “Receiving a request through the feedback channel will not create any obligation or expectation that Apple will commit to building a specific requested feature (or, if Apple does choose to build a requested feature, whether or not it will make it available to the Eligible Developer or developers generally for a fee), which will remain at Apple’s discretion in line with its commercial strategy and priorities.” - Apple Proposed Commitments In this case it is particularly troubling because both the substance of the commitment and the mechanism chosen to enforce it are weak. It is also concerning that the measure is described as an "interoperability commitment", both in the commitment itself and in the CMA’s public communications. That risks setting a dangerous precedent by suggesting that this is the level of interoperability the CMA is prepared to accept, despite leaving Apple free to withhold any API access. It may also encourage other jurisdictions to adopt similarly weak standards, harming UK businesses’ global reach, and could make it more difficult for the CMA to impose a genuinely effective interoperability requirement in the future. Read our full analysis: https://lnkd.in/gkRKzRsq

OWA NEW REPORT 🚨 Apple’s interoperability “commitments” in the UK 🇬🇧 are a smokescreen: 👉 No obligation to share anything 👉 Broad excuses to say no 👉 Fees for APIs 👉 No public transparency They can comply… and change nothing 😬 The primary issue is that Apple can reject any interoperability request: “Receiving a request through the feedback channel will not create any obligation or expectation that Apple will commit to building a specific requested feature (or, if Apple does choose to build a requested feature, whether or not it will make it available to the Eligible Developer or developers generally for a fee), which will remain at Apple’s discretion in line with its commercial strategy and priorities.” - Apple Proposed Commitments In this case it is particularly troubling because both the substance of the commitment and the mechanism chosen to enforce it are weak. It is also concerning that the measure is described as an "interoperability commitment", both in the commitment itself and in the CMA’s public communications. That risks setting a dangerous precedent by suggesting that this is the level of interoperability the CMA is prepared to accept, despite leaving Apple free to withhold any API access. It may also encourage other jurisdictions to adopt similarly weak standards, harming UK businesses’ global reach, and could make it more difficult for the CMA to impose a genuinely effective interoperability requirement in the future. Read our full analysis: https://lnkd.in/gkRKzRsq

Alex Moore (Executive Director of OWA) and John Ozbay (CEO and Founder of Cryptee) were recently interviewed by Simonetta Vezzoso, a European academic specializing in digital competition law and the EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA). Check out it out: https://lnkd.in/gV2BwiVm >> “Now in terms of browser engines we have made some progress over the last couple of years in that there's been a whole list of just ridiculous conditions that we've managed to overturn and those issues have been fixed. But the big one that is still a major sticking point is Apple has basically said that if you want to ship your browser to EU, you have to ship a brand new browser, right? And so you got to think about that from the browser company's point of view. Let's say you've got 20 million or say you got 10 million users in the EU and they're in your Apple WebKit based browser. Now what Apple's saying is they want you to bring out another browser and cannibalize your own market by migrating the users. Now the thing is we've already come up with easily workable solutions that are even jurisdictionally constrained with the EU. They can even allow both engines to live within a single app, you know, have two engines inside one app and then you just have a toggle. If we're inside the EU, we use their real browser engine. If we're outside the EU, we use the WebKit one. That's just a contractual change. So to fix that one, all they need to do is go into one contract, change one line, and that problem's done. No technical changes needed whatsoever.” Alex Moore - Executive Director of OWA More than two years have passed since March 7, 2024, when Apple became legally obligated under the DMA to allow third-party browser engines, yet not a single browser vendor has successfully ported their own engine to iOS in the EU. The European Commission should open a formal investigation into Apple’s compliance with Article 5(7). Without decisive action by the European Commission, Apple appears set to hold back browser, browser engine, and web app competition on iOS indefinitely.

Here we are with Episode 2 of the DMA Vox Populi Podcast, featuring excellent Guests, Alex Moore and John Ozbay, who are genuinely rather magical at explaining the technical aspects that matter for advancing DMA enforcement and implementation. There is also a little surprise in store for DMA history nerds... On YouTube https://lnkd.in/e4J8-9wX On PeerTube https://lnkd.in/dve-WX-K Maria Luisa Stasi

Here we are with Episode 2 of the DMA Vox Populi Podcast, featuring excellent Guests, Alex Moore and John Ozbay, who are genuinely rather magical at explaining the technical aspects that matter for advancing DMA enforcement and implementation. There is also a little surprise in store for DMA history nerds... On YouTube https://lnkd.in/e4J8-9wX On PeerTube https://lnkd.in/dve-WX-K Maria Luisa Stasi

In a significant win for smaller browsers, the open web, and the 🇪🇺EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA), Google has agreed to place the browser selected through the EU browser choice screen directly in the Pixel homescreen hotseat (replacing Chrome). Previously, even when users selected a different default browser, Chrome remained in this prominent position, steering users back toward Google’s own browser and undermining the user’s choice. Choice Screen Design Without prejudice to Google’s legal position that this is not required by Article 6(3), Google has agreed to place the icon of the browser selected by the user from the choice screen in the hotseat of new Pixel devices. Google - EU Digital Markets Act Compliance Report Due to pressure from stakeholders (and most prominently, from Open Web Advocacy), the gatekeeper finally budged and agreed to place the icon of the browser selected by the user as a default from the choice screen displayed according to Article 6(3) DMA in the hotseat of new Pixel devices (page 125 of Alphabet’s compliance report) (although not on all Android devices). - Alba Ribera Martínez We are grateful to BEUC - The European Consumer Organisation, Mozilla, Vivaldi Technologies, DuckDuckGo, Ecosia and Brave for their valuable support in achieving this result. We would also like to thank OWA volunteers John, Roderick Gadellaa and James Heppell who helped make this happen at the DMA workshops. Finally, and perhaps most of all, we thank the European Commission Digital Markets Act team for its important precedent-setting work. Browsers need to compete on merit, not via privileged placement within an operating system. It is genuine competition between browsers that delivers the best outcomes for consumers and developers. This change is one more step in the right direction. Read our full analysis: https://lnkd.in/ghmKEWd9

Which? - The UK’s not for profit consumer champion had this to say about the UK CMA's proposed remedies. 👉 See: https://lnkd.in/gPU2kGTf

⚠️ LAST CALL TO WRITE TO THE UK's CMA:  5pm TODAY ⚠️ Under the current proposal, Apple can keep iOS and iPhone functionality exclusive to its own apps and services. If you want fair access to APIs for competing apps and browsers email 📧 mobilesms@cma.gov.uk See: https://lnkd.in/gj6sKTzN Demand: • Equal Access for Third Party Apps to Software/Hardware APIs • Equal Performance and Privileges • No Discriminatory Fees • Enforceable Deadlines & Public Oversight • Binding Commitments A few minutes of your time can make a difference!

⚠️ WRITE TO THE UK'S CMA BY TUESDAY 5pm ⚠️ Under the current proposal, Apple can keep iOS and iPhone functionality exclusive to its own apps and services. If you want fair access to APIs for competing apps and browsers email 📧 mobilesms@cma.gov.uk See: https://lnkd.in/gj6sKTzN Demand: • Equal Access for Third Party Apps to Software/Hardware APIs • Equal Performance and Privileges • No Discriminatory Fees • Enforceable Deadlines & Public Oversight • Binding Commitments A few minutes of your time can make a difference!