Apple iMessage may receive an exemption from the European Union’s new Digital Markets Act. Insiders report this to Bloomberg. Market regulators would have cautiously concluded that the service is not popular enough.
European Commission officials are ‘leaning towards’ an exemption for Apple iMessage as part of a market study into the messaging service. That investigation is expected to be finally completed in February, the anonymous sources tell Bloomberg. This means that iMessage may not fall under the strict DMA rules, which would require, among other things, that the service must cooperate with competing messaging services such as WhatsApp.
According to Bloomberg, the EU has cautiously concluded that iMessage is not popular enough among EU business users to be subject to regulation. The European Commission did not want to respond to questions from Bloomberg, the news agency wrote. An Apple spokesperson has also not yet responded.
In September, the European Commission appointed the first ‘gatekeepers’ under the Digital Markets Act, a law aimed at limiting the power of large tech companies and promoting competition. This includes 6 companies, which have a total of 22 services that will fall under the strict DMA rules. This includes WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger, in addition to the Apple App Store.
The EU also began further market investigations into Apple iMessage in September, in addition to Microsoft Bing, Edge and Microsoft’s advertising platform. All these services are not yet covered by the DMA, but the EU would investigate whether this should be the case. In the case of iMessage, the EU might conclude that this is not the case. Apple recently said that it will provide iMessage with RCS support. This includes support for group conversations with Android users.
Several companies have already objected to their designation as a gatekeeper. In addition to Apple, Meta and TikTok owner ByteDance also did this. Those companies do not believe that their respective services should be covered by the legislation. The DMA will finally come into effect at the beginning of March.