iMessage will reportedly not be placed under the European Union’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) regulation after all due to the limited number of users in Europe, according to a new Bloomberg report.
The decision is not final yet, but officials from the European Commission are likely to conclude that iMessage doesn’t have a substantial number of business users that warrants its placement under the DMA. The five-month-long inquiry is set to conclude in February, adds the report, where the commission will reveal its final decision. As a reminder, the DMA is set to go into effect in March, leaving Apple with just one month to comply with the regulation of iMessage is deemed a big-enough messaging service.
Apple privately informed the EU that the number of iMessage users in Europe is too small to designate its messaging service as a market gatekeeper, an argument that the European Commission is looking likely to accept. As part of its investigation, the EU conducted a survey asking select users about the importance of iMessage and Microsoft’s Bing to assess whether they are significant enough to be subject to the DMA.
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Earlier, it was revealed that Apple is willing to take official action against the EU by filing a legal challenge against the inclusion of iMessage and App Store under the DMA. As part of the challenge filed with the Union’s General Court, Apple will argue that the entirety of the App Store should not be subject to regulation. Instead, the company argues that very specific and select parts of the App Store should be subject to the DMA rather than a blanket designation.
In July, it was revealed that Apple confirmed its “gatekeeper” status to the EU. Under the DMA, companies will also be required to allow users to easily remove pre-installed apps, as well as end the prioritization of default apps and services over third-party ones. Finally, the DMA is set to force Apple to open up its platforms to third-party app stores and external payment providers.
The Union accepted Apple’s self-designation in September alongside Google, Microsoft, Meta, Amazon, and ByteDance. So far, the DMA will officially govern Safari, App Store, and iOS in its entirety alongside several services offered by Apple’s competitors as confirmed earlier.
