Telegram files EU antitrust complaint against Apple, saying Apple must “allow users to have the opportunity of downloading software outside the App Store”
Messaging company is latest company to criticise restrictions and fees — Telegram, the messaging app …
Context & Ripple Effects
Telegram's complaint converts a long-running grievance into a legal case: back in 2018, CEO Pavel Durov said Apple had been rejecting Telegram's app updates globally after Russia banned the service, leaving it locked out of App Store updates for two months before the freeze lifted. That episode showed how much leverage Apple's gatekeeping gives it even over a top messaging app — today Telegram is asking regulators to remove the gate itself.
The filing lands on receptive ground in Brussels. The EU has already charged Apple with antitrust violations for allegedly squeezing rival music streaming apps through its in-app payments requirements, so a second major complaint — this time targeting distribution outside the store rather than payments inside it — widens the front of the European assault on the App Store model.
First-order effects
- Apple faces a formal EU antitrust probe into App Store distribution itself, not just its payment rules — the scope of scrutiny expands from take rates on transactions to whether sideloading must be permitted at all.
Second-order effects
- Other app developers critical of Apple's restrictions and fees gain a precedent to attach their own complaints to, and Apple's response will be read as a signal for how hard it fights the parallel music-streaming case already on file.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds — complaints stacking on payments and now distribution — Europe moves toward treating app-store gatekeeping as regulated infrastructure, forcing platform owners to open installation channels or justify them under competition law.
The trend: European regulators are being pushed by successive developer complaints from policing Apple's commission rates toward dismantling the App Store's exclusive control of app distribution itself.