Enlarge (credit: Andrew Cunningham)

Starting in March with the release of iOS 17.4, iPhones in the European Union have been subject to the EU's Digital Markets Act (DMA), a batch of regulations that (among other things) forced Apple to support alternate app stores, app sideloading, and third-party browser engines in iOS for the first time. This week, EU regulators announced that they are also categorizing Apple's iPadOS as a "gatekeeper," meaning that the iPad will soon be subject to the same regulations as the iPhone.

In a developer blog post released today, Apple said that it would comply with the EU's regulations "later this fall, as required." All changes that Apple has made to iOS on European iPhones to comply with the DMA will be implemented in the same way on the iPad, though it's not clear whether these changes will be brought to iPadOS 17 or if they'll just be a part of the upcoming iPacOS 18 update.

The EU began investigating whether iPadOS would qualify as a gatekeeper in September 2023, the same day it decided that iOS, the Safari browser, and the App Store were all gatekeepers.

(credit: Apple)

Apple is coming under fire from rivals Meta and Microsoft who say its plans to open up its mobile software to comply with a landmark EU law fail to go far enough, as the iPhone maker faces unprecedented regulatory challenges from Brussels over the coming month.

EU regulators, who are preparing to fine the tech giant 500 million euros in March over allegedly favoring its music-streaming app against competitors like Spotify, are also being lobbied to reject Apple’s proposals to satisfy the bloc’s Digital Markets Act.

The growing backlash against Apple comes as it is forced to make some of the biggest changes to its business model in years, following concerns over the dominance of its App Store, which forms a large share of the company’s $85 billion-a-year services business.