It has nothing to do with the US. EU regulations are simultaneously unclear and very aggressive. There is significant business risk to operating there as a multi-national. It’s becoming a region that is profitable enough to exist in but not to invest in and Apple is declining the regulatory risk of introducing AI there. Some companies will go for it. Apple is too risk averse. Simple as that.
Worked at a company where certifications were reciprocal (USA certified could be sold in the EU, EU certified could be sold in the USA). Our product was prevented from sale in the EU because they disagreed on one part of the design, nevermind the reciprocity agreement. Add in the way that the EU is friendly to companies the do bribes and kickbacks versus in the USA you go to jail if you use bribes/kickbacks overseas, and we ended up at a huge disadvantage outside the USA. We had the best product, so we still won a lot of deals, but there were huge sales that the EU competitors either won or soured with their bribe/kickbacks schemes for government officials. They then tried to do the same to undermine our service center capabilities. After that I don't see EU regulations as being in anyone's interests, just in someone's pocket.
> It’s becoming a region that is profitable enough to exist in but not to invest in
Then so be it. If Europe's market collapses under the weight of it's own regulation, it's not Apple's fault. Except, Europe's market isn't collapsing and in fact leading multiple nations in drafting similar legislation. If forcing Apple to compete makes their risk forecast worse, reciprocally, that's not the EU's concern or problem. It might just reward the innovation and smart consumer-first design Apple has been avoiding recently.
If you think these laws are "unclear" then you must be in abject denial of what it's purpose is. It's called the "Digital Markets Act". There is a single company that these crosshairs are aimed at, and Apple wants to whine and say it's not fair that a municipal government caught their profiteering racket. Poor thing! What if trillion-dollar Apple decides they can't invest in Europe's future!
Scaremongering. The EU isn't inherently righteous, but their lack of connection to Apple's tax dollars made it very easy to call out Apple's hypocrisy. All Apple can do is whine, and pretend like they weren't illegally abusing Europe's market. I say pretend, because Apple knew full-well that what they were doing was wrong, and now invests inordinate amounts of money marketing, lawyering and lobbying their way out of it.
