Legal Service: “no documents identified”
The Commission's in-house legal team checked its own files and found no documents matching the request. This is only one of five departmental answers, and the ones most likely to matter are still outstanding.
Background: what was asked
On 10 June 2026, a request was filed under the EU transparency law (Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001), which lets anyone ask the European Commission to hand over documents it holds. The request covered documents exchanged between the Commission and Apple about Siri AI / Apple Intelligence and the Digital Markets Act between June 2024 and June 2026.
The Commission split the request across five departments, each of which answers only for its own files. This page covers the Legal Service's answer.
What the Legal Service says
The Legal Service describes itself as an internal department that advises the Commission and represents it before the courts; it does not normally exchange direct correspondence with companies. After examining its own files, it found no document matching the terms of the request and therefore cannot grant access to anything.
The letter notes that the position can be challenged: a “confirmatory application” (a formal request to reconsider) can be sent to the Secretariat-General within 15 working days. It is signed by Alberto de Gregorio Merino, Director-General of the Legal Service.
What it does not mean
This is not the Commission saying it holds no documents about Apple, Siri AI or the Digital Markets Act. It speaks only for the Legal Service's own files.
A “nothing found” here is not surprising: the Legal Service is a team of lawyers, not the part of the Commission that deals directly with companies or enforces the DMA. The departments that would hold any Apple correspondence are DG COMP (competition and DMA enforcement) and DG CONNECT (digital and tech policy), and their replies are still pending. This answer says nothing about whether documents exist elsewhere.
What happens next
Replies are still expected from DG COMP, DG CONNECT, the Secretariat-General and DG COMM, with a deadline of 1 July 2026. No confirmatory application is planned against this Legal Service reply for now; the focus is on the departments more likely to hold relevant documents.
The jargon, briefly
- Access-to-documents request
- A formal request under EU transparency law to obtain documents an EU institution holds.
- Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001
- That transparency law, covering documents held by the Parliament, Council and Commission.
- EASE reference
- The file number the Commission assigns to each part of a request (here: 2026/2986).
- Legal Service
- The Commission's in-house lawyers: they advise it and represent it in court.
- DG COMP / DG CONNECT
- Commission departments for competition (and DMA enforcement) and for digital/tech policy.
- Confirmatory application
- A formal request to reconsider a refusal (essentially an appeal), due within 15 working days.