Apple will not bring its redesigned Siri to iPhones, Apple Watches, or iPads in the European Union, the company confirmed Monday — the latest and most consequential flashpoint in its prolonged dispute with European regulators over the bloc’s digital competition rules.

Despite months of negotiations with EU authorities, Apple said it was unable to reach an agreement that would allow the enhanced assistant to launch in the region while preserving what it described as essential privacy safeguards. The company had proposed an EU-specific framework designed to comply with the Digital Markets Act without expanding third-party access to sensitive user data. The European Commission rejected it.

As a result, the redesigned Siri will be absent from the EU versions of iOS 27 and iPadOS 27 when those updates ship.

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European officials wasted no time pushing back on Apple’s framing. “The decision not to allow Siri AI in the EU is Apple’s and Apple’s only,” European Commission spokesperson Thomas Regnier said at a press briefing on Tuesday. “Nothing in the DMA prohibits Apple from introducing products in the EU.”

The Commission’s position is that Apple sought exemptions from interoperability requirements under the DMA and declined to build solutions that would allow users to work with alternative AI assistants — a characterization Apple disputes.

Apple, for its part, argued that the EU’s interpretation of the law creates unacceptable privacy risks. Under what it called regulators’ “extreme interpretation,” the company said it would be compelled to give third-party virtual assistants direct access to users’ private information without adequate protections.

The impasse lands at a significant moment. Earlier the same day, Apple unveiled the revamped Siri as a centerpiece of its latest software update — a more capable assistant that can draw on what is visible on a user’s screen, as well as data from messages, emails, and photos. European users will not see any of it.

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The broader context is one of sustained friction. Apple has objected to multiple provisions of the DMA since the legislation took effect, including requirements to permit alternative app marketplaces and outside payment systems. The European Commission has made clear it has no intention of softening the law in response, leaving Apple to navigate, and in some cases simply opt out of, features it offers everywhere else in the world.

For European consumers, the message is straightforward: the iPhone in their pocket will do less than the one sold anywhere else.

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Apple has hired Lilian Rincon, a former Google executive who spent nearly a decade overseeing the company’s shopping and assistant products, as vice president of product marketing for artificial intelligence. She will report to Apple’s marketing chief, Greg Joswiak.

The appointment arrives at a critical moment. Apple is preparing a substantially rebuilt version of Siri for release later this year, developed using technology from Google’s Gemini AI model — a significant architectural shift for a product that has long been criticised for falling behind competitors in capability and reliability.

Rincon’s background makes her a pointed choice. Her tenure at Google placed her at the centre of two product categories — shopping and AI assistants — that are directly relevant to what Apple is now trying to accomplish with Siri. Marketing an AI assistant that users have grown accustomed to underestimating will require more than a product launch; it will require a credible reintroduction of a product whose reputation has become a liability.

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The hire also underscores the degree to which Apple’s AI ambitions have become a marketing challenge as much as an engineering one. Rivals, including Google and OpenAI, have moved aggressively to define what capable AI assistance looks like in the consumer market. Apple, which has historically controlled its product narratives with unusual precision, is now building the team it believes can reclaim that ground.

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