EU says Apple doesn’t need to open iMessage

Apple’s iMessage was under investigation by the European Commission to determine whether the service fell under antitrust regulations contemplated by the Digital Markets Act (DMA). Rumors were circulating that the EU was considering exempting iMessage from these antitrust rules. Today, the European Commission officially announced that it has not designated Apple’s iMessage and Microsoft’s Bing, Edge and Advertising services as guardians of core platform services under the DMA, which means they will not need to be open to competitors.

Like the European Commission announcement via press release (h/t The edge), Apple and Microsoft are not designated “gatekeepers” for core platform services such as iMessage, Bing, Edge and Microsoft Advertising. The decisions conclude the Commission’s investigations, so Microsoft and Apple can rest easy to that extent. However, the Commission notes that this does not affect their designation as “controller” for their other core platform services. The previous decision continues to affect Apple’s App Store, Safari, iOS and Microsoft’s Windows, while an investigation into iPadOS is ongoing.

The DMA comes into force in the EU on March 7, 2024. Under this legislation, core platform services managed by gatekeepers, such as the App Store, Safari and iOS, will have to comply several new obligations, including making the platform interoperable. with third-party services. Apple has announced sweeping changes for the EU (only) that meet the terms set out in the DMA, although critics have been unhappy with these measures, calling them “malicious compliance” in some cases.

Prior to this move, Apple announced that support for RCS would now be integrated into the Messages app on iOS, where it would work with iMessage. If the EU had decided otherwise, Apple would have been forced to open iMessage to others and allow interoperability with Android, possibly ending the “blue bubble versus green bubble” texting war. For now, the end is not in sight.