EU may force Apple to allow app side-loading

According to Reuters, Apple received a special warning from Margrethe Vestager, Executive Vice President of the European Commission, who accuses the company of "using privacy and security concerns to fend off competition on its App Store."

At times, the inability of developers to provide iOS apps outside the App Store has been a global topic of debate and the cause for many lawsuits against the company so far.

At the same time, Vestager is focusing her attention since 2019 on implementing a new Digital Markets Act (DMA), which will include a set of rules that will force Apple to allow the side-loading of apps from App Store onto iOS devices.

‘’The important thing here is, of course, that it's not a shield against competition, because I think customers will not give up neither security nor privacy if they use another app store or if they sideload... I think privacy and security is of paramount importance to everyone’’, Vestager said.

It is noted that Vestager's proposal is open to change and will have to be approved by many EU countries and lawmakers in order to be finalized, and legally bind Apple to allow apps outside the App Store in the European Union.