Bing, Edge, and iMessage avoid DMA obligations

The European Commission does not believe that Microsoft Bing, Edge and Apple iMessage are gatekeeping platforms under the rules of the Digital Markets Act. The services thus remain formally exempt from important obligations, including interoperability.

The European Commission has decided that Bing, Edge, and iMessage are not gatekeeping services. In other words, the solutions are not ubiquitous enough to fall under the strict rules of the Digital Markets Act (DMA). Microsoft's advertising services have also been officially cleared.

Go along with the arguments

The decision is in line with expectations, but still somewhat eye-catching, as all services attract enough users to qualify. Microsoft and Apple notified the EU as required, and later argued that there were sufficient reasons for the platform's services not to qualify as gatekeeper platforms. The committee then began conducting an in-depth analysis.

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This investigation has now concluded. The EU has weighed the arguments, sought input from key stakeholders, and decided that Bing, Edge, Microsoft Advertising, and iMessage do not actually qualify as gatekeeper services at this time. This may change in the future.

Good news for tech giants

This is good news for Microsoft and Apple. Gatekeeper services like WhatsApp, Google Search, LinkedIn, and Chrome must adhere to strict rules according to the DMA. To mitigate the market dominance of such services, gatekeepers should, for example, make their services compatible with some third-party solutions and not treat their own solutions more favorably than those of competitors.

For iMessage, the decision concretely means that Apple should not open its European messaging service to third parties and keep the ecosystem closed. The DMA will come into effect next month. The European Union is also currently investigating Apple's iPadOS.