The European Commission has just concluded its five-month-long investigation into Apple's iMessage and Microsoft's Edge web browser, Bing search engine, and advertising, and deemed that they do not meet the criteria to be deemed core platform services as part of the EU's Digital Markets Act (DMA).
It said:
Following a thorough assessment of all arguments, taking into account input by relevant stakeholders, and after hearing the Digital Markets Advisory Committee, the Commission found that iMessage, Bing, Edge and Microsoft Advertising do not qualify as gatekeeper services.
This means the abovementioned apps and services will be exempt from further scrutiny (for now) and will not be required to meet other obligations. For iMessage, it means not having to offer interoperability to cross-platform messaging with other services.
On the other hand, Meta's WhatsApp and Messenger messaging apps were both considered by the EU to be dominant enough to be considered core platform services. WhatsApp recently said that it plans to offer cross-platform messaging, but it's obviously not as straightforward as it seems.
One can't help but think that one reason Apple managed to dodge this bullet was because it announced support for RCS (rich communication services) in November last year.
Supporting RCS means iOS users will be able to enjoy improved messaging features such as encryption, read receipts, typing indicators, cross-platform emojis, and more when texting Android users. Google has been urging Apple to support RCS for years and it's likely Apple only capitulated to avoid further regulation by the EU.
While iMessage managed to escape further regulation, Apple's biggest casualty is arguably its App Store. It announced earlier this year that it would allow users in the EU to install and use "alternative app marketplaces" to fulfil its DMA obligations.
As for Microsoft, it's worth noting that the Edge browser only has an 11.9% market share on desktops and that drops to just 4.97% when you consider both desktop and mobile users. Chrome, the leading browser in the world, has about 65% market share across both desktop and mobile.
Source: European Commission via The Verge
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