This week, Apple announced an improved version of its digital assistant, Siri, incorporating artificial intelligence features to help users answer questions, complete tasks and find information from across their device and apps.
Apple said Siri would be available later this year, but the roughly 450 million people in the 27 nations that make up the European Union will have to wait. A regulatory dispute between Apple and the European Commission, the executive branch of the European Union, is delaying the release of the new A.I. features.
The root of the issue is a competition law, the Digital Markets Act, or D.M.A., which requires large tech companies like Apple to make their products interoperable. That means outside developers would be allowed to offer competing A.I. digital assistants to download instead of Siri.
European regulators said the rules were necessary to improve competition. Apple said compliance would create privacy and security vulnerabilities.
To offer an effective A.I. assistant, the software needs wide access to a person’s device to crawl through files, apps, photos and other data. Giving such access to an outside app developer creates the risk of stolen personal data, including passwords and photos, or the altering of files and account settings without permission, Apple said.
“According to E.U. regulators, the D.M.A. requires Apple to give any A.I. system nearly unlimited access to a user’s device, as well as the ability to act on that access autonomously without a user’s ongoing visibility and control,” the company said.
Europe is Apple’s second-largest market after the United States, accounting for $111 billion in sales in 2025. China, where the service will also not be immediately available, is Apple’s third-largest market.
Apple said that during several months of negotiations, it had offered different alternatives, including a system that would allow third-party assistants but limit access to certain data on a person’s device. The company, which developed the new Siri tool with Google, said the commission had rejected the ideas.
Apple said it had no timeline for making the product available on iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch devices in the European Union. However, the service will be available on Mac computers.
On Tuesday, Thomas Regnier, a spokesman for the European Commission, said in a statement that Apple was a “gatekeeper” and “not allowed to close the market.” The D.M.A., he said, is intended to encourage competition and give customers more choice.
“Instead of trying to find suitable compliance solutions, Apple simply asked the commission to be exempted from its interoperability obligations,” he said. “That’s not an option.”
Apple is not the only company being told to open up its products to outside developers. On Tuesday, the commission also ordered Meta to reverse a policy that effectively banned competing A.I. chatbots from integrating with its WhatsApp messaging service.
The regulatory disputes are starting to lead to product delays for European customers. In 2024, Apple held back the release of other artificial intelligence features. Meta also previously delayed the release of A.I. services, its smart glasses and the Threads social media site, before eventually making them available in Europe.
