Tile is now accusing Apple of abusing its power in a letter to the EU

Tile has complaints against Apple, and it has made them known in the United States. Now it’s doing the same thing in Europe.

A report from the Financial Times details a letter that Tile sent to the European Commissioner for Competition earlier this week, which states that the company believes Apple is abusing its power and making it harder for Tile customers to use its products due in part to Apple’s own Find My app. Tile reiterates its belief that Apple is “illegally” favoring its own products.

In a letter sent to European competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager on Tuesday, California-based tracking app maker Tile argued that Apple was making it more difficult for users to operate its product on their smartphones compared to Apple’s own rival application, FindMy, by selectively disabling features that allow for seamless user experience.

Tile’s requests in the EU are similar to what it has requested in the U.S., with Tile wanting appropriate agencies to take a harder look at Apple’s business practices. Tile has made it clear that it is not a fan of the changes that Apple made to location services in iOS 13, stating that Apple’s tuning of always-on location tracking makes it harder for Tile customers to use the products. And, at the same time, makes it easier for Apple device owners to use the Find My app that’s baked into many of the company’s products.

Tile also believes that changing these necessary settings aren’t easy to find, which it says is by design.

Tile’s letter notes that its agreement with Apple to have its products sold in Apple’s retail stores has been terminated, and that it is not seeing equal placement in the App Store, either. As for the first complaint, this is directly tied to rumors that Apple is working on a similar product to the Tile tracking device, something referred to as “AirTags“. This accessory has been rumored for quite some time already, and Tile has argued that its changing relationship with Apple –especially as it relates to the tracking device not being sold in Apple stores any longer — is due to the company gearing up to announce its AirTags accessory.

For its part, Apple has responded to Tile’s letter:

We strenuously deny the allegations of uncompetitive behavior that Tile is waging against us. Consistent with the critical path we’ve been on for over a decade, last year we introduced further privacy protections that safeguard user location data. Tile doesn’t like those decisions so instead of arguing the issue on its merits, they’ve instead decided to launch meritless attacks.

The EU will follow through with preliminary investigations in short order, and will respond to the letter soon.