Report: EU Commission Could Investigate Apple’s Changes to PWAs on iOS

The European Commission may be readying a new investigation into Apple’s recent decision to drop support for Home Screen web apps on iOS in the EU. Earlier this month, the company explained that it was removing support for web apps that are pinned to the iOS Home Screen to comply with the Digital Markets Act, which will require Apple to support alternative browser engines on iOS in the EU.

Apple emphasized that it didn’t have the infrastructure in place to guarantee that Home Screen web apps that don’t use the company’s WebKit engine will benefit from the same security and privacy architecture that applies to current Safari-powered progressive web apps (PWAs) and native App Store apps. Apple also explained that building this new integration architecture for PWAs was “not practical to undertake given the other demands of the DMA and the very low user adoption of Home Screen web apps.”

As of today, Home Screen web apps on iOS almost look like native apps, meaning they don’t display the Safari browser UI. They provide a good alternative for apps that Apple currently doesn’t allow on its App Store, such as cloud gaming services. However, once iOS 17.4 will remove support for Home Screen web apps in the EU, PWAs pinned to the Home Screen will act as browser shortcuts and open in Safari.

After the EU Commission designed iOS, the App Store, and Safari as three “core platform services” that need to be regulated under the Digital Markets Act, the EU regulator can’t be thrilled about Apple making web apps less functional for iOS users in the EU. According to the Financial Times, the Commission has recently sent questions to developers about the consequences of this change.

“We are indeed looking at the compliance packages of all gatekeepers, including Apple,” the European Commission told the Financial Times. “In that context, we’re in particular looking into the issue of progressive web apps, and can confirm sending the requests for information to Apple and to app developers, who can provide useful information for our assessment.”

It remains to be seen if the EU Commission will go further than that and open an in-depth investigation. However, in reaction to Apple’s DMA-related changes for iOS in the EU, Thierry Breton, European commissioner for Internal market, warned earlier this month that “if the proposed solutions are not good enough, we will not hesitate to take strong action.”