European Union regulators have taken initial steps to investigate Apple’s decision to end support for web apps in the EU, The Financial Times reported.
The European Commission has sent inquiries to Apple and app developers to better assess the effects of the move.
“We are indeed looking at the compliance packages of all gatekeepers, including Apple,” a spokesperson for the European Commission told Quartz in a statement. “In this context, we are specifically investigating the issue of progressive web applications and can confirm the submission of information requests to Apple and application developers, who may provide useful information for our assessment.”
Apple announced this month that it will officially end support for Progressive Web Apps — also called Homepage Web Apps — in the EU in iOS 17.4 starting in March. These web-based apps could previously be installed and launched from the iPhone’s home screen, send push notifications, and store memory separately from the web browser.
More importantly for antitrust regulators, these apps were a way for developers to circumvent Apple’s App Store and associated fees. Under the new change, these apps will work more like bookmarks.
Apple blames the change on a new EU law
When reached for comment, Apple emailed Quartz previous statement saying the changes were made to comply with the new EU Digital Markets Act (DMA). The new act aims to regulate what it calls the “gatekeepers” of large platforms in online markets – like the App Store – in order to make those markets more competitive for smaller players. In Apple’s case, the DMA will require the tech giant to enable full support for third-party search engines, which the company disputes as unrealistic.
In a Q&A with developers, Apple said it’s opening up progressive web app features to third parties without exposing users to the risk of security breaches “it was not practical to undertake subject to other DMA requirements.”
“We expect this change to affect a small number of users. However, we regret any impact this change — which was made as part of DMA compliance work — may have on Home screen web application developers and our users,” Apple wrote in its statement.