Apple has announced it is enabling third-party payment options for visionOS and Vision Pro devices in the EU in an effort to comply with the Digital Markets Act (DMA).

The DMA stipulates that gatekeeper companies must support interoperability with competing services. Apple’s App Store ecosystem was labeled a gatekeeper platform, and the company has already found itself in hot water for a perceived lack of compliance.

Apple seems to be taking a proactive stance with the Vision Pro, enabling third-party payment support even though the device has not yet been slapped with the gatekeeper label.

Apple made the announcement in a developer blog post:

Alternative payment options are now supported starting in visionOS 1.2 for apps distributed on the App Store in the EU.

As the company points out, this brings visionOS in line with the rest of the company’s platforms:

To reflect the DMA’s changes, developers will have new options for digital goods and services transactions in their apps distributed on the App Store in the EU across iOS, iPadOS, macOS, tvOS, visionOS, and watchOS. This includes the ability to use alternative payment service providers for in‑app purchases and linking out to their webpage to complete transactions.

Despite its efforts to comply with the DMA as it applies to the App Store, the EU Commission has issued a preliminary ruling that Apple is still not in compliance.

“Today is a very important day for the effective enforcement of the DMA: we have sent preliminary findings to Apple. Our preliminary position is that Apple does not fully allow steering,” Margrethe Vestager, the EU’s competition chief, said at the time. “Steering is key to ensure that app developers are less dependent on gatekeepers’ app stores and for consumers to be aware of better offers. We have also opened proceedings against Apple in relation to its so-called core technology fee and various rules for allowing third party app stores and sideloading. The developers’ community and consumers are eager to offer alternatives to the App Store. We will investigate to ensure Apple does not undermine these efforts.”

While Apple now has an opportunity to defend itself and possibly overturn the preliminary ruling, failure to successfully do so could result in massive fines.

In view of the stakes, it’s little wonder Apple opted to enable third-party payment support for visionOS…even if the EU is not yet requiring it.