[hiram112]

I imagine the real reason here is that EU companies want to avoid the 30% fee Apple collects on all online purchases with IOS apps. It's doubtful any savings will be passed on to consumers, anyway.

It's likely Apple will do what Google does and instead tie their app store into various apis and services (e.g. Google Play) so that side-loaded apps have a very difficult if not impossible time integrating with the phone in a way that users expect and desire.

Seems like the EU bureaucracy goes after big entrenched US tech companies again and again, but they never really obtain any W's. They spent years fighting against Microsoft's bundling of IE and Media Player, and all that ever happened was that MS released some Euro-only version of a few Windows releases without the bundling. But both IE and Media Player were displaced within a few years anyway, regardless of any EU rules.

Likewise, all the GPDR rules seemed to have accomplished is that every site now has an annoying-as-hell "click here to accept all cookies" button that everyone has learned to just auto accept. I doubt Europeans have anymore actual privacy compared to the rest of us, especially since their own governments are far more interested in tracking their citizens online behavior with regard to tax avoidance, hate speech, etc - they absolutely require US Big Tech to keep track of all this info for them to quietly subpoena as needed.