This is just the first public round of a negotiation process. The EU is going to force Apple to dial this down to some level that the EU considers acceptable.
Apple wants zero liability from the upcoming changes to the Product Liability Directive and the introduction of the EU Cyber Resilience Act. They want to say "the system was more secure, but the EU made us do this so go pound sand".
> Inevitably, the new options for developers’ EU apps create new risks to Apple users and their devices. Apple can’t eliminate those risks, but within the DMA’s constraints, the company will take steps to reduce them.
That's exactly what this means. Nobody will be able to argue that Apple could have done more. It will be "Apple was doing more, but the EU made them do less".
They could absolutely do more. They could actually vet all applications and exclude knock offs. They could ask for sources of applications they distribute to see if they're legit or not. They could partner with 3rd party known reliable sources.
The EU isn't making it less secure, because WebKit isn't the only secure rendering engine in the world, far from it.
Apple wants zero liability from the upcoming changes to the Product Liability Directive and the introduction of the EU Cyber Resilience Act. They want to say "the system was more secure, but the EU made us do this so go pound sand".
> Inevitably, the new options for developers’ EU apps create new risks to Apple users and their devices. Apple can’t eliminate those risks, but within the DMA’s constraints, the company will take steps to reduce them.
That's exactly what this means. Nobody will be able to argue that Apple could have done more. It will be "Apple was doing more, but the EU made them do less".