Apple loses bid to overturn its designation as a gatekeeper under EU's Digital Markets Act

In 2023, the European Union designated iOS, the App Store and Safari as “gatekeepers”. Apple has been unhappy with the rules this designation entails and has been fighting a lengthy legal battle. Judges from the EU General Court disagreed, saying:“Irrespective of the devices in question, those stores have the same purpose, namely to connect ​app developers with end ​users in order to facilitate ⁠the distribution of software applications.” This is the EU’s second highest court and Apple can still appeal to the EU Court of Justice. Apple is currently appealing a decision that would force it to open technical documentation and iOS features to third-party services.

In summary, Apple is a gatekeeper under the terms of the Digital Markets Act (DMA) and the App Stores (regardless of which Apple devices they target) should be treated as a single Core Platform Service. As such, the App Store is required to follow the interoperability obligations detailed in the DMA. As for iMessage, it has not fallen under DMA regulations yet. However, Apple’s preemptive attempt to avoid the NIICS label has failed – and this opens iMessage to future investigations. An appeal against the€500 million finefor anti-competitive steering policies is still pending. Source(PDF) |Via