Siri AI will be delayed in the European Union because of regulations – that’s over 450 million people, almost half a billion.
Now, the EU strikes back and blames Apple for what’s happening.
It’s not us, it’s you
How will this end? | Image by Apple
Per the latest Reuters report, Apple has tried to apply for an exemption for a period of a year and a half, but the EU has rejected it.
That’s why iPhones in the EU won’t take advantage of the new and enhanced Siri AI while US owners will. The Cupertino giant says the European Commission hasn’t engaged constructively with them to resolve the privacy and security issues.
As the report goes, the plan was for Apple to create a middleman system over 18 months so other virtual assistants could use Siri AI safely. However, the EU regulators said no.Apple bosses explained that AI assistants need a massive amount of access to a user’s private data, including almost all of their messages. Apple said it shared its technical plans to protect this data with the EU six months ago.
What Joswiak said
In essence, a commission that’s asking us to conduct a very risky experiment on many, many, many tens of millions of users and we only want to ship these capabilities when we can do so safely.
– Greg Joswiak, Apple’s marketing chief, June 2026
This doesn’t fly with the EU Commission and it entirely disagreed with Apple.
Per spokesperson Thomas Regnier, the decision not to roll out Siri AI in the EU “is Apple’s and Apple’s only”.
According to him, there’s nothing in the EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) to stop the company from introducing new products on the Old Continent.
Apple was simply unable to develop interoperability solutions that meet essential EU privacy and security standards.
– Thomas Regnier, EU Commission spokesperson, June 2026
He says that instead of trying to find a suitable compliance solution, “Apple simply made a request to the European Commission to be exempted from their interoperability obligations under the DMA” for at least 18 months. “That’s not an option”, Regnier concluded.
The EU is important for Apple
Europe is a huge market for Apple, making up nearly 27% of its total sales last year.
Because of these EU laws, Apple says it also has to delay other new features in Europe, like controlling an iPhone from a Mac, live translation on AirPods and certain Maps features.
EU enthusiasts say that EU laws are designed to stop tech giants from dominating the market, give smaller rivals a fair chance and offer consumers more choices. If companies break these rules, they can be fined up to 10% of all the money they make worldwide in a year.
What is DMA, though?
The Digital Markets Act (DMA) is a strict European law designed to stop tech giants like Apple from locking users into their own systems and blocking competition. Under this law, the EU is forcing Apple to open up its iPhone software so rival AI assistants (like Google Gemini or ChatGPT) can access the same deep device data that Siri AI uses. Apple argues that sharing this deeply personal data with outside companies is a massive security risk, while the EU claims Apple is just using privacy as an excuse to avoid competition.
Because Apple refuses to lower its security standards to meet the EU’s open-access rules, they have chosen to block Siri AI in Europe for now.
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