Sources: the EU leans toward excluding iMessage from DMA rules due to not being popular enough among business users, part of an investigation ending in February
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Context & Ripple Effects
The probe followed Apple and Microsoft’s argument that their services lacked the scale needed for gatekeeper designation, while regulators tested that claim through questionnaires to customers and competitors. The issue matters because the DMA’s original political agreement included messaging-service interoperability requirements.
This tentative view is an early indication that DMA coverage may turn on demonstrated market position in a specific service, rather than a company’s broader size. The later closure of the investigation without designation is consistent with that case-by-case approach.
First-order effects
- Apple would avoid DMA obligations for iMessage if the preliminary finding is sustained, including the messaging interoperability requirements tied to gatekeeper status.
- Business users and rival messaging providers would not gain a DMA-based route to require iMessage interoperability through this designation process.
Second-order effects
- Microsoft’s parallel effort to keep Bing, Edge and Advertising outside the regime gains support from a threshold-focused reading of the rules; its services were also being assessed for insufficient dominance.
- Rival messaging services must compete for users without a mandated iMessage connection, rather than relying on regulation to reduce switching friction.
Third-order effects
- DMA enforcement may evolve into service-level, evidence-heavy designation decisions: large platforms can be regulated in one activity while excluded in another.
- If this pattern holds, interoperability policy will be uneven across communication services, making market-specific adoption and business-use evidence central to whether interface-opening duties apply.
The trend: The DMA is moving from broad platform scrutiny toward selective, service-by-service gatekeeper enforcement based on demonstrated market power.