LAGOS, Nigeria (VOICE OF NAIJA) – Apple and Microsoft are lobbying to exempt iMessage and Bing from the list of “gatekeepers” subject to new European regulations.
These tech giants argue that their services do not warrant the restrictions imposed by the Digital Markets Act (DMA), designed to foster competition in the tech industry.
On September 6th, the European Commission will unveil a list of designated gatekeepers, including companies and specific services.
These powerful platforms, determined by their revenue and user base, will need to adhere to a range of interoperability and competition rules.
While Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet, Meta, ByteDance, and Samsung are already known to be on the list, the commission must decide which aspects of their businesses will be covered.
Once designated, gatekeepers have six months, until March 2024, to comply with the DMA’s regulations.
According to reports, Microsoft is unlikely to dispute that its Windows platform qualifies as a gatekeeper, but it argues that Bing’s relatively small share of the search market, compared to Google, could be further diminished if it is forced to provide access to rival search engines.
Similarly, Apple is working on methods to open up iOS to third-party app stores and sideloading to meet the anticipated rules.
However, the company contends that iMessage does not meet the DMA’s user threshold of 45 million active monthly users and therefore should not be required to interoperate with other messaging services.
Estimates suggest that iMessage could have approximately one billion users globally, although Apple has not officially disclosed user numbers.
The DMA is part of a suite of EU laws aimed at curbing the influence of tech companies. The Digital Services Act, focusing on how platforms handle user data and content moderation, recently came into effect.
