A day after Apple told users its new Siri AI would not launch on iPhone and iPad in the European Union, framing the absence as a consequence of the Digital Markets Act, the European Commission publicly rejected that explanation. Speaking at a Brussels briefing on 9 June 2026, Commission spokesperson Thomas Regnier said the delay was a decision Apple made, not one the law required — and disclosed that Apple had asked the Commission for an 18-month exemption from its obligations rather than submitting a compliant design. The two accounts are now both on the record, and they describe the same outcome in incompatible terms.

What each side is claiming

The Commission's position, as Regnier put it, is that nothing in the DMA stops Apple shipping the product. According to the Associated Press, he told reporters the decision was "Apple's and Apple's only," because nothing in the DMA prohibits Apple from introducing new products in the EU. On Apple's proposed remedy, Regnier said the company had not engineered a compliant interoperability solution but instead sought, in his words, "to be exempted from their interoperability obligations" for at least 18 months rather than finding a compliant solution. The Commission's stated reason for refusing is competition: an exemption would let Siri AI establish itself on EU devices while no rival assistant had equal access, which is the kind of advantage the DMA's interoperability rules are meant to prevent. Regnier said EU law is non-negotiable.

Apple's account, set out in its WWDC newsroom statement and by software chief Craig Federighi, is that it did try to comply and was refused. Apple says it proposed a framework it calls a "Trusted System Agent" — an intermediary intended to give rival assistants the same access as Siri AI while preserving Apple's privacy and security protections — together with a phased rollout over 18 months, and that the Commission rejected its proposals. Apple has argued the Commission's interpretation of the DMA would require it to give any virtual assistant direct access to user data without adequate protections; Federighi said Apple was "deeply disappointed" that EU users would not get Siri AI on iPhone or iPad at launch, and the company said there is no current timeline for bringing it to those devices in the bloc.

The gap between the two is not really about the facts of what happened — both agree Apple sought an 18-month arrangement that the Commission turned down — but about how to characterise it. The Commission characterises Apple's 18-month proposal as a request for exemption from interoperability obligations; Apple characterises the same period as a phased plan to comply safely. Which framing is fairer turns on a technical-legal question that neither side has resolved in public: whether a DMA-compliant interoperability design could have met Apple's privacy bar in the time available. That remains genuinely contested.

What is and isn't affected

The dispute is narrower than "Apple Intelligence is banned in Europe." By Apple's own account, the delay applies to Siri AI on iOS 27 and iPadOS 27 — the platforms covered by Apple's designation as a DMA "gatekeeper" since September 2023 — Apple says the same Siri AI features are still due to ship in the EU on macOS 27, visionOS 27 and watchOS 27, none of which carry that designation, although reporting notes the Apple Watch experience may be constrained where it depends on a paired iPhone running the new Siri. In other words, the hold-up tracks exactly the surfaces where Apple's gatekeeper obligations bite, which is part of why the Commission reads it as a choice tied to those obligations rather than a blanket technical barrier.

It is also not the first round. Apple has delayed or withheld several AI features in Europe since its 2023 gatekeeper designation, each time citing regulatory complexity, and the Commission has each time characterised the outcome as Apple's decision. This week's exchange is a sharper, more public version of a recurring stand-off rather than a new kind of event.

The ASEAN read

For policymakers and businesses in this region, the specifics of the Apple–Brussels fight matter less than the pattern it confirms: the availability of a flagship AI feature now depends on the regulatory terms of each market, and a vendor and a regulator can disagree publicly about who is responsible when a feature does not ship. ASEAN governments writing AI, competition and data-protection rules are effectively negotiating the same trade-off the DMA forces — how much platform access to mandate in the name of competition, and how to weigh that against the privacy and security arguments platforms raise in response. The lesson is not that one side is right, but that "the regulator made us do it" and "the company chose not to comply" can both be asserted about the identical outcome, and that buyers and users should expect AI feature availability to vary by jurisdiction as a standing condition, not a temporary glitch.

Key Takeaways

  • On 9 June 2026, a day after WWDC, the European Commission disputed Apple's "due to the DMA" framing, saying the EU Siri AI delay is Apple's own business decision and that nothing in the DMA prohibits the launch.

  • The Commission characterises Apple's 18-month proposal as a request for exemption from interoperability obligations (which it refused, saying it would deny rival AI assistants equal access); Apple characterises the same period as a phased plan to comply safely.

  • Apple says it did propose a compliant design — a "Trusted System Agent" intermediary plus a phased 18-month rollout — and that the Commission rejected it; Apple argues the EU's interpretation would force unsafe access to user data.

  • Both sides agree on the mechanics (an 18-month arrangement was sought and refused) but disagree on how to characterise it; whether a compliant design could have met Apple's privacy bar in time is unresolved.

  • Scope: the delay covers Siri AI on iOS 27 and iPadOS 27 (Apple's DMA gatekeeper surfaces since Sept 2023); Apple says the features still ship in the EU on macOS 27, visionOS 27 and watchOS 27, though reporting notes Apple Watch may depend on a paired iPhone.