November 6, 2025, 1:31 pm | Read time: 3 minutes
In September, Apple published an appeal to the EU, warning about the consequences of the Digital Markets Act (DMA) for customers. According to the company, software updates might appear later or not at all in Europe due to high development costs. However, Apple might now disable an existing feature to avoid opening it to third parties.
Resistance to EU Regulations
In the EU, Apple is required to open existing and new technologies to other companies to give them a fair chance to compete. The European Commission’s directive states that features Apple wants to bring to Europe must be accessible to third parties from the start. This is why, for example, live translation with AirPods will only be available here in December–even though the feature has been available worldwide since September.
In early 2025, the Commission created a list of nine existing features–such as AirDrop, AirPlay, and iOS notifications–that Apple must open to competitors in the coming years. Although the company confirmed to TECHBOOK at the time that it would comply with the regulations, the French online magazine “Numerama” now reports that Apple will completely disable one of the features in the EU to simply bypass the DMA procedure 100203.
iPhone and Apple Watch Synchronization Affected
Specifically, this concerns the synchronization of Wi-Fi passwords between the iPhone and a connected device like the Apple Watch. The Commission documented the exact functionality in the procedure here:
“Automatic Wi-Fi connection: Allows access to information about local Wi-Fi networks stored on the iPhone and enables connected physical devices to seamlessly connect to these networks.”
According to the report by “Numerama,” Apple now plans to disable this feature via an iOS and watchOS update in December. Apple has allegedly confirmed this to the portal.
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Apple Has Security Concerns
The company already warned in its appeal about the security risk posed by third-party access to stored Wi-Fi networks: “The Wi-Fi history can reveal sensitive information about a user’s location and activities. Companies can use it, for example, to track whether you visited a specific hospital, hotel, fertility clinic, or courthouse.”
Also of interest: Editor on new EU regulations for Apple: “This goes too far!”
The DMA requires Apple to release this data upon request. According to Apple, “large companies” would exploit this to access sensitive user data. The Commission has so far ignored Apple’s security concerns.
Compliance Without Regard for Consequences
This is the first time Apple is removing a feature from the European market to comply with local legislation. It is also a prime example of behavior known in the English-speaking world as “malicious compliance”–adhering to rules without regard for the consequences. Apple has the choice to comply with interoperability requirements or no longer offer the feature. While technically compliant, Apple accepts a deterioration for customers.
For European users, however, the change is likely to have minimal impact. So far, the Apple Watch uses the iPhone’s Wi-Fi information to automatically connect to known networks. In the future, a manual connection via a code from the iPhone will likely be required. As long as the Watch is near the iPhone, this makes little difference.
According to “Numerama,” the change will automatically apply to all users with a European Apple account in Europe. TECHBOOK has asked Apple for a statement but has not yet received a response.