I’m confused at the all comments here that suggest Apple didn’t vet these changes with the EU before announcing. Tim Cook met with the EU regulators at Apple Park last week. The changes that are being implemented have been in the works for literally years.
This is the point. Neither the EU legislators nor Apple Execs have time to waste on a casual meeting. Assuming that it was not about compliance is kind of ridiculous.
Having a meeting about compliance != vetting changes before announcing.
For example:
* Apple says "here's our proposed new framework." EU regulators say "We don't like it." Apple replies "Too bad, we're going to do it anyway, and we are confident we are in line with your regulations." EU regulators say "If you do that, we'll sue you." Apple replies, "OK, we have good lawyers." End of meeting.
* Apple asks the EU for more specific details on how the EU will approach various provisions, without actually revealing any concrete details of what they were planning.
* Apple requests the meeting with the EU regulators, to reassure them they are going to take action before the March 4th deadline and that they have a detailed plan in place to meet the new regulations, but then does not actually reveal any specific details in the meeting and instead talks only in generalities.
These are all possible contents of such a meeting. Just because you know they had a meeting on the subject of the new regulations, does not mean you can assume Apple was vetting their changes and getting EU approval before announcing. There are a great many things that are not that, and just because you can't think of them, or I can't think of them, does not mean they did not happen.
Unless you have direct or indirect knowledge of what happened behind those closed doors, which have not been reported in the media or elsewhere, you are not entitled to make any assumptions.
