Google and other European telecom companies have signed a letter addressed to the EU asking them to label iMessage as a designated serice under the Union’s Digital Markets Act (DMA), accorfing to a new report from the Financial Times.
The letter is urgin regulators within the EU to designate iMessage as a “core” service that would force Apple to make its messaging platform interoperable with other third-party platforms as put forward by the DMA. The EU is yet to make up its mind over iMessage’s status, but signatories hope that their letter would speed up the process in their favour.
The report adds that the letter was also signed by chied executives of Vodafone, Deutsche Telekom, Telefónica and Orange. In the letter, signatories claim that iMessage does indeed pass the “qualitative thresholds” of the DMA. Google and co claim that including Apple’s messaging service under the DMA would “benefit consumers and businesses.”
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The telecoms companies and Google argued in their letter, which was sent to the EU’s internal market commissioner, Thierry Breton, that the “fundamental nature” of iMessage as “an important gateway between business users and their customers is without doubt justification for Apple’s designation as gatekeeper for its iMessage service”.
”It is paramount that businesses can reach all their customers taking advantage of modern communications services with enriched messaging features,” the letter, which was confirmed by multiple sources, added. “Through iMessage, business users are only able to send enriched messages to iOS users and must rely on traditional SMS for all the other end users.
Financial Times
Apple earlier claimed that iMessage’s userbase is too small to be placed under DMA’s jurisdiction. Apple also argued that its messaging service should not be subject to the new law as users don’t have to “pay directly for its use and its devices can be used without the messaging app.”
Apple made an earlier argument to convince the EU to spare iMessage from the set of regulations introduced by the regulation. According to the DMA, affected services must have an annual revenue of at least €7.5 billion, a market capitalization value of no less than €75 billion, and at least 45 million active monthly users based in the EU to be affected by the new regulation. However, the EU does have discretion to sidestep those metrics if deemed necessary.
Apple declined to offer a new statement over news of the letter, but did refer to an earlier one.
iMessage is a great service that Apple users love because it provides an easy way to communicate with friends and family while offering industry-leading privacy and security protections.
“Consumers today have access to a wide variety of messaging apps, and often use many at once, which reflects how easy it is to switch between them. iMessage is designed and marketed for personal consumer communications, and we look forward to explaining to the commission why iMessage is outside the scope of the DMA.
Apple statament
However, the EU argues that iMessage indirectly adds to Apple’s earnings, as the application comes pre-installed and is exclusively available on Apple devices. Antitrust authorities thus assert that the messaging service plays a significant role in the growth of Apple’s ecosystem. The EU already announced that several Apple services including its iOS App Store, Safari, and iOS itself are officially subject to DMA regulations.
The EU has also launched a separate survey asking Apple’s users and rivals whether iMessage should be subject to its interoperablity regualtions. While the Union declined to publicly comment over Google and co’s letter, it has until February to reach a conculsion over its status.
