Apple filed feedback with the European Commission on May 13 supporting Google's opposition to proposed rules that would force Google to give rival AI services access to Android apps and user data. Apple argued the measures "would create profound risks for user privacy, security, and safety as well as device integrity and performance" — an unusually direct intervention given Apple's own Digital Markets Act fights, and one that signals iOS is watching the Android case as a precedent for what regulators may demand next.
What the EU is proposing
The European Commission's draft measures would require Google to let competing AI services interact with Android apps to perform tasks on a user's behalf — sending emails, ordering food, sharing photos, and similar agent-style actions. The proposals sit under the Digital Markets Act and follow Brussels' designation of Google as a gatekeeper. The feedback period closed May 13, and the Commission must adopt a final decision by July 27, 2026.
What Apple said
Apple's filing framed the measures as forcing platforms to grant AI agents privileged access to data and APIs that current third-party apps can't reach. The company called the risks "especially acute in the context of rapidly evolving AI systems whose capabilities, behaviours, and threat vectors remain unpredictable," and accused the Commission of "substituting judgments made by Google's engineers for its own judgment based on less than three months of work."
The substance — that giving outside AI services system-level access creates new attack surfaces — is the same case Apple has made against EU interoperability demands on iOS. Filing it on Google's behalf reads less like solidarity and more like Apple stress-testing the precedent before the Commission applies it to App Store and Siri integrations.
Why this matters
Two weeks ago Google previewed an Android 17 build leaning hard on Gemini as the connective tissue across phones, Chrome, laptops, and cars — and confirmed Gemini will power a new version of Siri later in 2026, in line with our coverage of Google's pre-WWDC AI push. The EU proposal is the regulatory countermove: if Gemini gets system-level reach on Android, OpenAI and Anthropic want the same access, and the Commission appears willing to legislate it.
Apple's filing is a tell that Cupertino sees the Google case as binding precedent. If the Commission lands its July decision in favor of mandated AI interoperability, the same logic applies to iOS — and Apple's tighter control over what apps can read from the system becomes harder to defend in Brussels.
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