Tech Giants Apple and Microsoft Challenge EU Regulations

Apple and Microsoft purportedly seek to have iMessage and Bing excluded from the European Union’s register of technology ‘gatekeepers.’ The Financial Times reports that both corporations are privately and independently asserting that their services lack the magnitude and influence to warrant the constraints stipulated by the Digital Markets Act—a regulation devised to foster competition within the technology sector.

The European Commission is slated to unveil a roster of designated gatekeepers on September 6th, identifying overarching enterprises as well as the specific services they provide. These formidable platforms, classified on the basis of their earnings and user base, will be obliged to adhere to a plethora of interoperability and competition provisions. Apple and Microsoft, alongside Amazon, Alphabet, Meta, ByteDance, and Samsung, were previously confirmed as entrants on this list. Nevertheless, the commission must decide which facets of their domains fall under its purview. Once the EU designates its gatekeepers, they will have a six-month window, expiring in March 2024, to conform to the DMA’s regulations.

As per the Financial Times, Microsoft is unlikely to contest the classification of its Windows platform as a gatekeeper but contends that Bing’s relatively modest market share in comparison to the more dominant Google could further diminish if it is compelled to provide users with access to competing search engines.

Similarly, Apple is reportedly developing strategies to open up iOS to third-party app stores and sideloading, aligning with the forthcoming rules. Nonetheless, the company contends that iMessage does not meet the DMA’s user threshold of 45 million active monthly users and, therefore, should not be obligated to interoperate with other messaging services. According to external estimates cited by the Financial Times, iMessage may boast a billion users globally, although Apple has not officially disclosed these figures.

The DMA constitutes one element of a collection of EU regulations devised to restrain the supremacy of technology conglomerates. The Digital Services Act, which concentrates on how platforms manage user data and moderation, came into effect in the preceding month.

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