Credit: Dhruv Bhutani / Android Authority
- The European Commission has concluded its investigation into Apple’s iMessage and Microsoft’s Bing, Edge, and Advertising services.
- The companies are not being designated as gatekeepers for these core platform services under the Digital Markets Act, meaning they won’t be required to comply with strict interoperability rules.
- As a result, Apple need not open up iMessage in the EU, although the company preemptively announced RCS support coming to the iOS Messages app.
Apple’s iMessage was under investigation by the European Commission to determine if the service fell under antitrust regulations envisaged through the Digital Markets Act (DMA). There were rumors that the EU was leaning towards exempting iMessage from these antitrust rules. Today, the European Commission has formally announced that it has not designated Apple’s iMessage and Microsoft’s Bing, Edge, and Advertising services as gatekeepers of core platform services under the DMA, meaning they won’t need to be opened up to competitors.
As the European Commission announced through a press release (h/t TheVerge), Apple and Microsoft are not being designated as “gatekeepers” for core platform services such as iMessage, Bing, Edge, and Microsoft Advertising. The decisions conclude the Commission’s investigations, so both Microsoft and Apple can rest easy to this extent. However, the Commission notes that this does not affect their designation of “gatekeeper” for their other core platform services. The previous decision continues to affect Apple’s App Store, Safari, iOS, and Microsoft’s Windows, while an investigation into iPadOS is ongoing.
