Apple may be forced to let iPhone users uninstall Photos app in Europe: report

Apple is reportedly in hot water with the European Union (EU) again. Earlier this year, the EU brought the Digital Markets Act (DMA) into force with a deadline of March 6. Among many user-centric policies, the law also required consumer technology companies to focus on interoperability and offer an open ecosystem where users have the choice to select a specific app on the device as the default. Although Apple has added support for alternative app markets and allowed third-party browsers to run their mechanism to comply with the law, the EU believes the Photos app still violates the rules.

On March 25, the European Commission (EC) opened a non-compliance investigation against Apple, Google and Meta. Apple cited three reasons in a press release that said: “The Commission has opened proceedings against Apple regarding its compliance measures to (i) allow end users to easily uninstall any software application on iOS, (ii) easily change the default setting on iOS, and (iii) encourage users with selection screens that must effectively and easily allow them to select an alternative default service, such as a browser or search engine on their iPhones.”

According to a report by Daring Fireball’s John Gruber, the first part of the above reasons relates to the Photos app. Gruber emphasizes this from the remarks of the executive vice-president of the EC, Margrethe Vestager. She said: “Apple has also failed to disable the installation of several apps (one of which would be Photos) and prevents end users from changing their default status (for example Cloud), as required by the DMA.”

Allowing users to delete the Photos app could be inconvenient for the iPhone maker. As Gruber pointed out in the report, Apple’s system applications are deeply integrated into the operating system. The Photos app, for example, is not only an app for viewing photos in the gallery, but also serves the purpose of granting third-party apps different levels of access to improve security. The Photos app is also integrated with iCloud and allows users to share selected albums or the entire gallery with other users. In order for the Photos app to be uninstalled and allow a third-party gallery app the same access, Apple may require re-engineering the entire iOS.

Since the non-compliance case is now open, the EC intends to conclude the procedure within 12 months. Apple will now have to undergo an investigation in which, if the regulators do not provide valid reasons why the app cannot be uninstalled, Apple may have to pay up to 20 percent of its total worldwide revenue in the form of fines. The EC emphasizes that in cases of systemic violations, it can also oblige the gatekeeper (a consumer technology company) to sell the business or parts of it or prohibit it from obtaining additional services related to the non-compliance.