iMessage will not be subjected to the European Union’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) following an investigation into Apple’s messaging service. The Union ruled that iMessage isn’t big enough to be regulated by the DMA, which is set to go into effect next month (via Bloomberg).
The investigation launched by the European Commission concluded that iMessage lacks a “dominant enough” position in the EU’s messaging market to be subjected to the DMA. This means that Apple will not be required to open its service to interoperate with competitors like Telegram and WhatsApp.
The EU launched a five-month investigation into iMessage late last year that also included Microsoft’s Bing to assess whether both products have a big enough user base in Europe that would grant DMA regulation. The probe mainly focused on the use of businesses for both services, with the EU declining to place Bing under the DMA as part of its announcement today.
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Apple was contemplating pursuing legal action against the Union over its potential DMA designation of the App Store and iMessage. It’s unlikely that the EU seriously considered Apple’s legal threat with today’s decision seeing that the App Store on the iPhone will be forced to adhere to the DMA when iOS 17.4 launches sometime next month.
With the iOS 17.4 update, Apple is ushering forward a series of major changes to the app ecosystem on the iPhone. It will allow app installs outside the App Store through alternative app marketplaces, and lower app download commissions while introducing the controversial “Core Technology Fee.”
The changes will also span the iPhone’s NFC chip which will be opened for third-party Apple Pay competitors. Users and developers will also have the choice to set up default third-party web browsers other than Safari and the ability to deploy non-WebKit web engines on browser apps.
