In November 2023, Apple challenged the EU's DMA designation of its five App Stores as a single service, iOS' interoperability, and iMessage's NIICS designation
Apple (AAPL.O) has challenged EU tech rules designating its five App Stores as a single core platform service subject to onerous obligations …
ReutersFoo Yun Chee
Context & Ripple Effects
Apple's filing formalized the objections it had previewed while the EU was preparing its gatekeeper designations, including its argument that its operating systems should not be treated as one browser service. Apple's earlier browser-separation argument shows the dispute centered on how the DMA defines a service boundary, not just on compliance details.
The challenge became the opening stage of a longer fight over the reach of the DMA: Apple later appealed a specific iOS interoperability order, while the General Court ultimately rejected its challenge to the App Store and iOS gatekeeper designations. That later dismissal underscores why this initial classification dispute mattered.
First-order effects
Apple contests the Commission's ability to aggregate five App Stores into one core platform service, placing the scope of its DMA obligations into legal dispute.
The filing also directly challenges the applicability of DMA classifications to iOS interoperability and iMessage, preserving Apple's position that those services should not receive the contested treatment.
Second-order effects
Developers, rival app stores, and interoperability-dependent services face uncertainty over the precise obligations that will govern access to Apple's ecosystem while the designations are litigated.
The case tests whether regulators can assess related regional or device-specific services as a single platform, a precedent that other designated platforms will watch when structuring their own challenges.
Third-order effects
If regulators can sustain service aggregation and interoperability mandates through judicial review, DMA enforcement shifts from labeling individual products toward governing the control points of an integrated ecosystem.
The dispute points to a durable tension in platform regulation: firms will seek narrower product definitions, while enforcers will seek rules that map to the practical leverage created across connected services.
The trend: This is part of the broader shift toward using platform-level regulation to open ecosystem access, with courts deciding how broadly a gatekeeper's services can be defined.
DHH is repeatedly saying that Apple does nothing to earn the 30% cut of IAPs that ‘bullying bureaucrats’ then ‘extort’ from them, but in the same breath says: “Something like 85% of all HEY customers use Apple devices, so not being present on the iPhone with the new HEY Calendar …
I don't like the concept of App Review generally in the year 2024 and I think Apple should eliminate it. And, I love indie apps and like buying them. However, it's funny that devs flatly assert “Apple needs us!!” while also complaining about how little money can be made on the …
HEY Calendar app for iOS was just resubmitted for approval by @AppStore. Team worked through the weekend to address the bullshit, not-documented-anywhere, not-enforced-with-any-consistency claim that the app “does something”, if you don't have an account. https://x.com/...
Apple doesn't like the designation of a single App Store (it believes they're different for different devices) & being told to give access to iOS. It says forced interoperability is not proportionate & breaches fundamental rights. It's also unhappy with EC view on Messenger/2
It'll take a while for dream-team best case, or anything even halfway there. In meanwhile, the App Store and Play Store gatekeeping has to improve. DHH thread: https://twitter.com/...
In dream-team best case, Brave & Chrome on iOS would use Chromium/Blink, with web apps as good as native. Web's security model is better. Web killing native should have happened: Steve Jobs iPhone 1 launch didn't have apps, it was phone / browse / chat, “the Web finally works”.
.@Apple is declining to comment on why/what it's challenging in EU's action under #DMA. But the EU court has released Apple's arguments in two lawsuits. So, here you go: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/... and https://eur-lex.europa.eu/... /1
Will 2024 be the year when the Gatekeeper's gates, or even walls, come tumbling down? European Commission says comply with the Digital Markets Act (DMA) with by 7 March 2024 per @PrivacyMatters. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/... See QT for web apps in Brave instead of native apps. 1/…
After its failed attempt to stop regulators looking into mobile market competition in the UK, Apple is also pulling no stops in litigating the EU Digital Markets Act. Disputes about facts, I can understand. But Apple seems to be arguing an entire DMA rule is unlawful. /1