Apple's attempt to shed its gatekeeper status under the Digital Markets Act has failed. The EU court dismissed all three of the company's lawsuits – concerning iOS, the App Store, and iMessage. This is a significant defeat for Apple in a dispute that has plagued the company in Europe for years.
The Digital Markets Act is the regulatory framework that currently fuels almost every dispute between Apple and Brussels in the EU – from alternative app marketplaces to the temporarily blocked rollout of Siri AI on iPhone and iPad. This Wednesday, the Court of Justice of the European Union in Luxembourg ruled that Apple was rightly classified as a "gatekeeper." The company had challenged this classification – and lost on all counts.
All three lawsuits dismissed
Apple took its case to the EU General Court in 2024 after the European Commission classified the company's five app stores – on iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV, and Apple Watch – as a single central platform service. This classification brings with it a whole host of strict regulations. The court has now dismissed the lawsuits against the gatekeeper classification for the App Store and iOS; it declared the lawsuit concerning iMessage inadmissible.
Important for context: The Court of Justice of the European Union is the court of first instance. Apple can appeal the ruling to the European Court of Justice, the EU's highest court. The company has not yet officially stated its intention to do so, but has immediately reiterated its criticism of the DMA.
What Apple's gatekeeper status demands of it
The DMA classifies particularly powerful tech companies as gatekeepers – controlling access to key digital markets. Those holding this status are prohibited from favoring their own services over those of competitors, from merging personal data across different services without consent, and must provide users with alternative app marketplaces. For iOS, the additional requirement is that competing services must be able to interoperate with the operating system.
The thresholds for classification are high: A company must generate at least €7.5 billion in revenue or reach a market capitalization of €75 billion in the EU, as well as have more than 45 million monthly active users and over 10,000 active business customers per year in the EU. Apple easily meets these criteria.
The special case of iMessage
It is noteworthy that Apple also sued iMessage – even though the service was ultimately not classified as a gatekeeper platform. The Commission had examined whether iMessage fell under the rules but rejected the idea because WhatsApp clearly dominates the messaging market in Europe. Apple nevertheless contested the classification of iMessage as a number-independent communication service, which would have subjected the messenger to EU telecommunications rules – apparently to preempt future challenges. The court declared this part of the lawsuit inadmissible.
Alternative app stores and the Siri AI ban
For users in Germany, Austria, and the rest of the EU, the Device Management Act (DMA) has long been noticeable – for better or for worse. On the one hand, it has enabled alternative app marketplaces, the ability to sideload apps, and a wider selection of standard services. On the other hand, Apple cites precisely this set of rules as the reason why the new Siri generation is not yet launching on iPhones and iPads in these countries. Switzerland, as a non-EU country, is unaffected by either of these regulations and receives Apple's features just like the rest of the world.
The conflict lies precisely at this fault line: Apple considers the DMA disproportionate and sees data protection and security jeopardized by the required openness. The EU Commission, on the other hand, views the law as a means to enable competition and give users more freedom of choice. For the time being, the ruling strengthens the regulators' position.
The power struggle is going to the next level
The ruling is a partial victory for Brussels, but hardly the end of the dispute. Apple has repeatedly demonstrated its willingness to exhaust all legal avenues, all the way to the highest court – an appeal to the European Court of Justice is considered likely. At the same time, the company is simultaneously negotiating at the political level, most recently directly with the European Commission about a possible path forward for Siri AI. Thus, the court proceedings and the negotiating table are running parallel – and the final word has not yet been spoken on either front. (Image: Shutterstock / va-butenkov)
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