Sources: Apple and Microsoft have argued that iMessage and Bing are insufficiently popular to be designated “gatekeepers” set to be regulated under the EU's DMA
Battle comes ahead of publication of first list of services to be regulated under Digital Markets Act
Financial TimesJavier Espinoza
Context & Ripple Effects
The companies’ arguments arrived as the EU identified 22 services for DMA coverage while leaving iMessage and Microsoft’s services subject to further assessment. The initial DMA service list made the designation threshold consequential, rather than automatically extending rules across every product offered by a large platform.
Apple and Microsoft gain a formal basis to argue that iMessage and Bing should not carry DMA gatekeeper obligations, pending the EU’s assessment.
The European Commission must assess the services’ actual market position rather than infer designation solely from their owners’ scale.
Second-order effects
A service-level review gives other large platforms an incentive to contest DMA coverage product by product, focusing on usage and competitive constraints.
Competitors and customers become important inputs to enforcement: regulators’ later questionnaires show that designation disputes can turn on market evidence beyond company filings. Customer and competitor questionnaires raised the stakes for those submissions.
Third-order effects
If this approach holds, DMA enforcement will distinguish between a company’s broader ecosystem power and the dominance of each named service, producing a more granular regulatory perimeter.
That granularity can make the regime more contestable but also shifts influence toward evidence-intensive designation reviews, with outcomes varying across services rather than firms.
The trend: The DMA is evolving into service-by-service gatekeeper regulation, where platform scale alone does not settle coverage.
It's also interesting that the EU has created this weird incentive to not grow your user base past say 40 million users so you avoid a bunch of onerous regulation. It'll be interesting to see if this becomes an unintended consequence of the law.
Still trying to figure out how Apple has confirmed it has over 1 billion active iPhones but less than 45 million iMessage users in the EU. I'm guessing it's the difference between iMessage as a network (blue bubbles) and iMessage as an app that includes SMS (green bubbles). …
Weirdly, I'm inclined to believe Apple here. There's no way iMessage has 45Mn active users in the EU coz everyone outside of North America actually uses Whatsapp. iMessage is a joke in the rest of the world.
Apple and Microsoft have said iMessage and Bing do not meet the usage threshold to be regulated by the EU's digital markets act (DMA). This threshold is 45 million monthly active users. It's kind of funny that the EU came up with this objective sounding rule to regulate America…
Apple says iMessage doesn't meet the 45m EU MAU threshold to be covered by the DSA, which is interesting, but not actually surprising given WhatsApp completely owns that market. https://www.ft.com/...
Meta, Google, Microsoft refuse to designate some of services as ‘gatekeepers’ (=obligations due to EU Digital Markets Act). MS argues that Bing does not have enough users. Apple similarly, for... iMessage. Is iMessage use so low (<45mn monthly EU users)? https://www.ft.com/...
Sounds like Apple is making a #DMA Art. 3(5) argument. I cannot see how it could be persuasive. Commission should have the courage of its convictions, designate, and let Apple try to persuade the General Court otherwise https://eur-lex.europa.eu/...
Will Apple claim iMessage isn't an important gateway for business users to reach their customers? But surely there are at least 10,000 micro-businesses in the EU (eg sole trader electricians, plumbers etc.) using it to arrange jobs. With around 34% of EU smartphone market share..
“The decision is likely to hinge on how Apple and the EU define the market in which iMessage operates.” But the DMA is written to not be susceptible to these endless competition economics games 🧐 and I certainly can't see how iMessage won't be designated as a #DMA #NIICS
“New competition in Digital Marleys with #DMA”, and Apple and Microsoft say flagship services not popular enough to be ‘gatekeepers’ https://www.ft.com/... @EPPGroup @CDU_CSU_EP
Coming this Wednesday: the EU's final list of which companies are considered “gatekeepers” under the Digital Markets Act. They'll be forbidden from offering vertically integrated products that consumers like. https://www.ft.com/...