I don’t know if of all the tech companies that have to make big changes to adapt to DMA, Apple is the one experiencing the most trouble, but It’s definitely the one that makes the most headlines.. We reported on the latest clash more than two weeks ago, when the European Commission announced that, following a preliminary investigation, it had found the company to be non-compliant with the new standard and confirmed the opening of a formal investigation. Reason? Its “à la carte” adaptation of the DMA, which so excited the rest of the sector.

A few months earlier, in March, the EU forced Apple to pay a fine of 1.8 billion euros for abusing its dominant position in iOS against Spotify, and we have seen quite a few moves from Cupertino in these months. in response to new European regulationsand in particular was designated as one of the six porter, which are not fully understood. From their original plans to block PWAs, which they eventually had to back down after a wake-up call from the European Commission, to the recent announcement that Apple Intelligence might not make it to the EU.

It’s actually kind of tiring to see this atmosphere of conflict that seems to be permanently established between Apple and the EU. It is completely understandable, I will always say this, that every company looks out for its own interests, but trying to break the rule, as it is alleged to have done according to the preliminary investigation, as well as taking measures that primarily harm its users, does not seem to me to be a defensible position. And that’s why I think it worked out well on this occasion.

We read that in the press release The European Commission and Apple have reached an agreement to allow third-party applications to use the NFC connection of iPhones for payments. Until now, as you know, if you are an iPhone user, payments can only be made using NFC through Apple Pay, a platform where you can add your cards. With this contract, other applications (for example banking entities’ applications) will have direct access to this feature, eliminating the need to add cards to Cupertino’s payment system.

In addition to the openness of iOS and iPhones in this sense, which is another consequence of DMA, I find it remarkable that on this occasion we are talking about an agreement between the parties, an agreement that precludes an investigation and possible sanctions derived from it. Apple wins because it avoids another clash with the EU, and European users win because they will have more options. And such a thing, in the context of the confrontation I have already mentioned, seems to me to be a more than remarkable change, and therefore worthy of recognition and celebration.