Apple has today confirmed that it will introduce changes to iPadOS to make it compliant with the Digital Markets Act (DMA) after the European Union deemed the iPad’s software as a digital gatekeeper earlier this week.
Apple will roll out the same set of changes introduced with iOS 17.4 to iPhone users in Europe to a future iPadOS update in the fall, presumably as part of iPadOS 18. This means that EU-based iPad users can look forward to downloading third-party apps while skipping the App Store through alternative marketplaces and via web distribution. Apple will also enable the selection of third-party web browsers as a default as well as non-WebKit web engines for browser apps.
As part of the iPadOS DMA designation, Apple is making some updates to the Core Technology Fee (CTF) where most developers are required to pay €0.50 per app download over the first one million installations over 12 months. Apple now says that users who download the same app through iOS and iPadOS will only count as one download against each developer’s CTF allowance.
Earlier, Apple successfully argued that iPadOS and its App Store are a different entity than their iPhone and iOS counterparts, which is the reason why the iPad wasn’t originally designated as a gatekeeper by the EU last September. However, the EU has changed its mind following an extensive query into the number of business and total iPad users in the continent.
The EU’s decision comes after the conclusion of an investigation into iPadOS that commenced last September. “Our market investigation showed that despite not meeting the thresholds, iPadOS constitutes an important gateway on which many companies rely to reach their customers,” EU’s antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager stated following the announcement earlier this week.
In its investigation, the EU states that the number of iPadOS business users exceeds the DMA’s qualification threshold by over 11 times. While the number of non-business users doesn’t currently meet the threshold, the EU predicts that it will cross the required threshold very soon anyway despite falling iPad sales worldwide. Just like iOS, the EU adds that iPadOS is locking customers into Apple’s ecosystem, forcing an intervention via the DMA.
