Apple loosens grip over EU app store in sync with regulator's new rules

Since Apple introduced the App Store in 2008, it has tightly controlled the apps and services allowed on iPhones and iPads, giving the company an iron grip on one of the digital economy's most valuable storefronts.

Now, Apple is weakening its hold on the store, in one of the most consequential signs to date of how new European regulations are changing consumer technology.

To comply with a European Union competition law taking effect on March 7, Apple on Thursday announced major changes to the App Store and other services for consumers in Europe. Users of iPhones and iPads in the 27-nation bloc will for the first time be able to use alternative app stores to download games, productivity tools and other apps. Banks and shopping services can offer competing payment methods inside their apps. People who buy new iPhones in the future will also see a new menu for downloading alternative browsers to Apple's Safari, such as Chrome and Firefox.


The changes are some of the most tangible examples of how a checkerboard of laws and regulations is now fracturing people's technology experiences, depending on where they live. In China, government rules force Apple to block apps such as virtual-private networks, known as VPNs, which would give users access to the unfiltered internet. In Europe, customers will now have access to competing app stores and other services.