The European Union’s iMessage antitrust investigation looks set to rule in favor of Apple, meaning that the secure messaging service would be exempt from upcoming interoperability rules.
If confirmed, it would mean that Apple would not have to make iMessage able to exchange messages with rival chat apps …
EU’s iMessage antitrust investigation
The EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) is a piece of antitrust legislation aimed at tech companies. It’s intended to increase competition in the sector by removing some of the advantages held by tech giants.
Established messaging apps like iMessage and WhatsApp have a huge advantage over a new messaging startup – and that’s the catch-22 situation of needing to have users in order to get users.
You could create the best messaging app in the world, but nobody will use it unless their family and friends already do so. With messaging interoperability, anyone could use the messaging app of their choice, and still be able to communicate with all their contacts.
The DMA applies only to the most dominant companies in each field. Apple does qualify in regard to the App Store, but had argued that iMessage should be exempted because it doesn’t have enough active users in the EU. While that might sound like an implausible claim to US ears, it is true that WhatsApp is far more popular in Europe, and probably the default messaging app, even for Apple users.
Report says Apple’s argument is set to win
Bloomberg reports that Apple appears set to win the argument.
Apple iMessage service looks set to win a carve out from new European Union antitrust rules to rein in Big Tech platforms, after watchdogs tentatively concluded that it isn’t popular enough with business users to warrant being hit by the regulation.
European Commission officials are leaning toward the reprieve for Apple as part of a five-month market investigation which concludes in February, according to people familiar with the matter.
The ‘business user’ argument is important because many companies offer a chat service based on WhatsApp, which is another lock-in for the app. iMessage is not used in the same way.
9to5Mac’s Take
We’ll have to see whether the report is confirmed, but Apple had already created enough doubt to be excluded from the initial list of dominant messaging apps, which is limited to WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger.
The Cupertino company appeared unsure whether it would win, so took out an insurance policy by doing a U-turn on the rich communication services (RCS) messaging standard. Apple had previously refused to support this, but last month changed its mind.
By agreeing to support RCS, Apple would have been able to argue that this was enough to permit messaging interoperability without having to make any more radical changes to iMessage. That decision may also have helped sway the EU to rule in Apple’s favor, if today’s report is indeed accurate.
Photo: Mariia Shalabaieva/Unsplash
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