Apple says that their iMessage service is insufficiently popular to be designated as a “gatekeeper” under the EU’s new Digital Markets Act (DMA). Microsoft has also taken the same tack with its Bing search engine.
Javier Espinoza for Financial Times:
Brussels’ battle with the two US companies over Apple’s iMessage chat app and Microsoft’s Bing search engine comes ahead of Wednesday’s publication of the first list of services to be regulated by the Digital Markets Act.
The legislation imposes new responsibilities on tech companies, including sharing data, linking to competitors and making their services interoperable with rival apps.
Platforms with an annual turnover of more than €7.5bn, a market cap above €75bn and active monthly users in the EU of 45mn will fall under the rules, though Brussels has some discretion over the designation beyond these metrics.
Apple argued that iMessage did not meet the threshold of user numbers at which the rules applied and therefore should not comply with obligations that include opening the service to rival apps such as Meta’s WhatsApp, said the two people.
Analysts have estimated that iMessage, which is built into every iPhone, iPad and Mac, has as many as 1bn users globally, but Apple has not disclosed any figures for several years. The decision is likely to hinge on how Apple and the EU define the market in which iMessage operates.
Brussels is still deliberating over the inclusion of iMessage and Bing in the final list. The European Commission may open a probe to determine if these services should face the new obligations set out in the DMA.
MacDailyNews Take: With the UK — where Apple’s iMessage is actually used in numbers — no longer a part of the quasi-governmental EU bureaucracy and the majority of the people in EU countries using WhatsApp, Telegram, Signal, Messenger, etc., it’s entirely possible, if not probable, that Apple falls outside of the EU red tape machine’s latest bout of innovation-stifling overreach.
Those who choose to be led by idiots live idiotically.
Please help support MacDailyNews. Click or tap here to support our independent tech blog. Thank you!
Support MacDailyNews at no extra cost to you by using this link to shop at Amazon.
Not only do the EU “Nazis” dictate to the 27 or so EU countries, now they are, in effect dictating to us (and indeed the world).
I don’t like it!
Nazi’s defined by uneducated americans the same way Socialists are defined. You really have no clue
Well then clue us in, all knowing wise one.
To me, sounds like a not so transparent Democrat ELITIST on their high horse deflecting away from an excellent post and saying NOTHING. Too easy…
These clowns can’t even define democracy, but it’s okay, last time there were 7 million more “marxists” than retards.
Apple, and other large international corporations, need to get a pair.
Many people feel that Messages is a competitive advantage for iPhones. How in the world can it be that a quasi-legitimate government like the EU can tell a company to give up such an advantage? It already operates reasonably well via SMS.
I wonder if any of Apple’s competitors are lobbying to have Messages included in this legislation.
Because it’s exclusionary and large enough to be anti-competitive
Interesting question. Yes, Apple’s iMessage already works well across all platforms.
“Brussels is still deliberating over the inclusion of iMessage and Bing in the final list. The European Commission may open a probe to determine if these services should face the new obligations set out in the DMA.”
The glint of bright light in the conversation. Fingers crossed cooler heads prevail, socialist countries RESIST TEMPTATION to control everything and Apple unaffected for being guilty of superior technology.
MDN: “Those who choose to be led by idiots live idiotically.” Great Tee Shirt slogan!
Sad, but true, yes too many in leadership positions that do not deserve them and their sycophant followers have no clue. We see it daily, or more accurately, some see it…