Good news for Apple: The European Commission (via Bloomberg) has concluded a five-month investigation into iMessage, along with Microsoft’s Bing, Edge and Microsoft Advertising, and concluded that all four do not qualify as privacy control services. access within the meaning of the Digital Markets Act (DMA). This means they will not face potentially disastrous regulatory sanctions.
“After a thorough evaluation of all arguments, taking into account the contributions of relevant stakeholders, and after hearing the Digital Markets Advisory Committee, the Commission has found that iMessage, Bing, Edge and Microsoft Advertising are not considered to be access control services,” the Commission said in its statement. a press release on February 13.
“The Commission will continue to monitor market developments in relation to these services, should substantial changes occur. The decisions do not affect the designation of Apple and Microsoft as gatekeepers on September 5, 2023 with respect to their other core platform services.
As expected, both Apple and Microsoft released statements welcoming the move.
Among other penalties, it was possible, until today’s ruling, that Apple would be forced to make iMessage interoperable with other messaging platforms under the terms of the DMA. This would be a major blow, since iMessage’s “blue FOMO bubble” has been called a powerful selling point for the iPhone in the US (outside the US, the dominance of other messaging services like WeChat and WhatsApp makes this less of an issue. ) Apple apparently doesn’t want iMessage to work well with Android, because a poor experience in group chats, the feeling of being somehow a second-class digital citizen, is an incentive constant to move to iOS.
Mind you, this may be a moot point since Apple has already “voluntarily” – i.e. “incredibly reluctantly” – agreed to support the RCS standard later in 2024. RCS runs on Android, and it should guarantee better overall performance. cross-platform experience (although the green bubble drama will apparently continue).
In other words, Apple avoided the impending regulatory interference by preemptively doing what it was threatened with, albeit in the most advantageous way possible. It is therefore possible that the conclusion of the investigation turned out to be unimportant, in the fortunate sense that the mere existence of a political will to investigate had already produced the desired effect. And in the end, it should be beneficial for everyone.
