Apple has won an exemption for its iMessage instant messaging service from the European Union’s Digital Markets Act tech rules after the company convinced antitrust regulators their service is not a gateway for businesses to reach end-users.
Foo Yun Chee and Bart H. Meijer for Reuters:
Following a five-month investigation, the European Commission found iMessage, Bing, Edge and Microsoft Advertising “did not qualify as gatekeeper services,” the EU executive said in a statement.
The Commission said Apple’s App Store, iOS operating system, and Safari browser will continue to be classified as gatekeepers as will Microsoft’s Linkedin social network and Windows operating system.
Apple had said iMessage usage is negligible, even on its devices, compared to rival messaging services in the EU and that iMessage is not an important channel for businesses to reach users in the bloc.
“Consumers today have access to a wide variety of messaging apps, and often use many at once, which reflects how easy it is to switch between them,” an Apple spokesperson said.
MacDailyNews Take: Victory!
With the UK — where Apple’s iMessage is actually used in numbers — no longer a part of the quasi-governmental EU bureaucracy and the majority of the people in EU countries using WhatsApp, Telegram, Signal, Messenger, etc., it’s entirely possible, if not probable, that Apple falls outside of the EU red tape machine’s latest bout of innovation-stifling overreach.
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