The European Commission yesterday concluded the investigation opened last September into Apple and Microsoft on the scope of application of the Digital Markets Act (DMA). It is closed in favor of the arguments of both companies, because the conclusion is that neither of them They must be designated as “service gatekeepers” on Apple’s iMessage platforms, Microsoft’s Bing search engine, the Edge browser, and the Microsoft Advertising advertising service.
The community executive assures that he has made “an exhaustive evaluation of all the arguments” that has led him to conclude that iMessage, Bing, Edge and Microsoft Advertising cannot be classified as “gateway services”, and therefore will not be required to meet requirements opening to third parties. In the case of Apple’s messaging app, there was a possibility that the Commission would force the apple company to make it interoperable with other messaging applications.
Brussels noted that it “will continue to monitor market developments with respect to these services, in case substantial changes occur” and noted that these decisions “do not in any way affect” the designation of Apple and Microsoft as gatekeepers “so refers to its other core platform services.” In the case of Apple, for example, this decision has led it to have to open the iPhone to alternative application stores to the App Store, a change that will occur starting next March, when the Cupertino company releases the update of its iOS 17.4 operating system.
One of the companies that had put the most pressure on the European Commission to force Apple to open iMessage to third parties was Google. When an Android operating system user exchanges an SMS message with an iOS (iPhone) user, the confirmation mark is green, instead of blue, which is the color that appears when both users have an Apple phone. Despite everything, the company led by Tim Cook has agreed to adopt the RCS standard for messages, which will have a more enriched experience and graphic capabilities, but will not eliminate the green color that identifies Androids and is considered among groups of young people. a kind of stigma.
In March 2023, the EU trilogue (made up of the Commission, the Council and the Parliament) approved applying the DMA to companies that offer basic platform services (search engines, messaging apps, social networks) and that have a capitalization minimum stock market value of 75,000 million euros or an annual turnover of 7,500 million euros.
These large technology companies are called in law as gatekeepers. To enter that category they must also have at least 45 million monthly users in the EU and more than 10,000 annual business users to be part of that small club. The conditions basically point to three companies: Apple, Google and Meta (Facebook).
