Tim Cook Really Hates the Idea of Losing the Apple App Store Monopoly

During a recent conference, Apple CEO Tim Cook criticized a proposed European law that would allow users to install software from outside of the Apple App Store, stating that he believes it would not be “in the best interest of users.”

CNBC reports that appearing via videoconference at the VivaTech conference in France this week, Apple CEO Tim Cook stated that he believes a recently proposed European law known as DMA that would allow users to install software outside of Apple’s App Store would “not be in the best interest of users.”

Cook stated: “I look at the tech regulation that’s being discussed, I think there are good parts of it. And I think there are parts of it that are not in the best interests of the user.” The European Union proposed two laws regulating big tech companies earlier this year, the Digital Services Act and the Digital Markets Act.

The DSAW focuses on the online ad industry while the DMA focuses on companies with a large number of customers, such as Apple, Amazon, and Google. The DMA aims to set rules that require these companies to open up their platforms to competitors.

One of Cook’s issues with the DMA is that it would force Apple to allow iOS users to sideload apps onto their devices from outside the Apple App Store. Currently, the Apple App Store is the only way to install apps on an iPhone or iPad without jailbreaking the device. Apple has claimed that its control over the App Store ensures high-quality app and helps prevent malware, but as Breitbart News has previously reported many iOS developers disagree with this claim.

Cook noted that the iPhone’s market share in France is only 23 percent and said that permitting sideloading on iPhones would damage both the privacy and security of users. “If you take an example of where I don’t think it’s in the best interest, that the current DMA language that is being discussed, would force sideloading on the iPhone,” Cook said. “And so this would be an alternate way of getting apps onto the iPhone, as we look at that, that would destroy the security of the iPhone.”

Cook said that Apple would participate in the debate over the proposed regulation and said he thought that some parts of the DSA were “right on,” citing that it would regulate platforms with disinformation issues such as vaccine hesitancy.

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