The
European
Union
is
attempting
to
loosen
the
grip
that
companies
like
Apple,
Microsoft,
and
Google
have
over
the
digital
economy.
Tech
giants
targeted
by
the
Digital
Markets
Act
(DMA)
—
a
law
passed
in
2022
aiming
to
make
the
tech
industry
less
monopolistic
—
are
required
to
remove
unfair
competitive
advantages
that
have
let
them
dominate
their
respective
markets
by
March
6th.
But
some
experts
believe
the
status
quo
is
unlikely
to
shift.
Many
of
these
companies
have
announced
compliance
plans
in
response
to
the
DMA,
and
for
the
most
part,
these
changes
— as
one
might
expect
from
a
plan
crafted
by
the
company
itself
—
are
unlikely
to
result
in
a
loss
of
power.
And
then
there’s
Apple,
which
appears
to
be
engaging
in
outright
malicious
compliance,
leaving
European
developers
at
a
disadvantage.
Last
September,
Alphabet,
Amazon,
Apple,
Meta,
ByteDance,
and
Microsoft
were
designated
as
“gatekeepers”
under
the
regulation
—
a
term
the
DMA
applies
to
tech
giants
providing
core
platform
services
that
hold
considerable
market
power.
These
services
include
search
engines
like
Google
Search,
messaging
services
like
WhatsApp
and
Facebook
Messenger,
and
operating
systems
like
Android,
Windows,
and
iOS.
Messaging
apps
will
need
to
be
interoperable
with
competitors
The
DMA
outlines
specific
obligations
for
these
core
platform
services,
intended
to
expand
options
for
consumers
generating
more
competition.
Messaging
apps,
for
example,
will
need
to
be
interoperable
with
competitors,
while
app
stores
cannot
force
developers
to
use
payment
systems,
identity
providers,
and
other
services
operated
by
the
gatekeeper
company.
Gatekeepers
have
a
deadline
of
March
6th,
2024
to
comply
with
these
rules,
or
risk
facing
hefty
fines
of
up
to
10
percent
of
the
company’s
total
global
turnover.
The
ensuing
responses
from
the
companies
targeted
by
this
legislation
have
varied
wildly.
Some,
like
Meta,
Apple,
Microsoft,
and
ByteDance,
launched
appeals
against
their
gatekeeper
and
core
platform
service
designations,
with
iMessage
and
Bing
successfully
snagging
exemptions.
TikTok’s
parent
company
ByteDance,
however,
failed
to
stall
its
designation
after
complaining
that
DMA
rules
would
force
it
to
disclose
private,
highly
strategic
information.
Suspending
its
designation
would
have
provided
TikTok
with
more
time
to
comply,
but
the
EU
court
shot
down
the
company’s
request
after
finding
no
risk
of
“serious
and
irreparable
harm”
for
TikTok.
Max
von
Thun,
the
director
of
Europe
and
transatlantic
partnerships
at
Open
Markets
Institute,
told
the
Verge
that
ByteDance’s
case
“always
looked
weak,”
but
notes
that
positioning
itself
as
a
challenger
to
US
tech
giants
may
still
be
enough
to
sway
the
EU.
The
bloc
hasn’t
reached
a
final
decision
on
ByteDance’s
appeal
yet,
but
the
rejection
means
it’ll
have
to
at
least
temporarily
comply
with
DMA
rules
when
they
go
into
effect
in
March.
At
the
time
of
writing,
the
company
still
hasn’t
explained
exactly
how
it
intends
to
do
that.
Companies
like
Amazon,
Meta,
and
Google,
rather
than
appealing
their
designation,
have
simply
announced
changes
in
response
to
the
DMA.
These
announcements,
said
von
Thun,
“point
towards
superficial
compliance
designed
to
tick
regulatory
boxes
without
posing
any
real
threat
to
the
gatekeepers’
market
dominance.”
“Superficial
compliance
designed
to
tick
regulatory
boxes”
That
makes
it
difficult
to
gauge
how
much
consumers
and
smaller
competitors
actually
stand
to
gain.
Jan
Penfrat,
senior
policy
advisor
at
European
Digital
Rights
(EDRi)
told
The
Verge
that
none
of
the
changes
proposed
by
gatekeepers
“have
led
to
any
meaningful
change
to
the
power
structures
that
help
keep
those
companies
at
the
top,”
though
he
notes
that
some
actions
will
take
time
to
yield
results.
For
example,
Alphabet
must
now
allow
people
to
remove
Google
apps
on
their
Android
phones
—
it’s
possible
this
could
snowball
into
benefiting
smaller
providers,
though
that
remains
to
be
seen.
Apple’s
App
Store
platform
was
one
of
the
biggest
targets
for
the
DMA,
having
come
under
fire
over
the
years
for
banning
alternative
payment
methods,
as
well
as
taking
up
to
30
percent
of
revenue
from
app
developers.
Apple
originally
claimed
that
it
actually
operates
five
separate
app
stores,
each
conveniently
too
small
to
be
designated
a
gatekeeper,
a
challenge
that
von
Thun
said
looked
like
a
“bad-faith
attempt
to
evade
compliance
by
imposing
artificial
distinctions
on
what
is
clearly
a
unified
service.”
Apple
originally
claimed
that
it
actually
operates
five
separate
app
stores,
each
conveniently
too
small
to
be
designated
a
gatekeeper
According
to
Penfrat,
Apple
is
the
gatekeeper
that
could
be
hit
hardest
by
the
DMA,
since
there
are
already
several
competitors
in
a
position
to
challenge
Apple’s
app
store
dominance,
including
Spotify
and
Epic.
“Apple
makes
big
money
with
its
app
store
monopoly,
over
85
billion
USD
per
year,
hence
their
particular
resistance
to
meaningful
change.”
When
its
appeal
didn’t
work,
Apple
instead
chose
a
different
approach.
The
new
rules
it
announced
on
January
25th
for
developers
releasing
iOS
software
in
the
European
Union
in
response
to
the
DMA
have,
suffice
to
say,
rustled
some
jimmies.
The
changes
set
to
be
introduced
for
EU
residents
with
iOS
17.4
technically
comply
with
DMA
rules,
but
they
come
with
new
conditions
that
are
onerous
for
developers.
Its
incoming
policies
would
reduce
the
commission
Apple
takes
for
apps
hosted
on
third-party
app
stores,
but
enforce
a
€0.50
(around
54
cents
USD)
“Core
Technology
Fee”
if
they
reach
over
a
million
downloads
—
with
the
only
alternative
being
to
stick
with
the
company’s
original
15–30
percent
commission
rate.
That
might
be
fine
for
apps
with
a
limited
number
of
users,
but
those
fees
can
add
up
quickly
if
they
become
victims
of
their
own
success.
An
example
given
by
David
Heinemeier
Hansson,
creator
of
Ruby
on
Rails,
finds
that
Meta
would
need
to
pay
Apple
$135
million
each
year
alone
to
host
just
Instagram
on
a
competing
app
store.
Penfrat
went
as
far
as
to
call
these
changes
“malicious,”
saying
they
could
actually
make
matters
much
worse
for
developers
trying
to
get
away
from
Apple’s
app
store
monopoly.
“Under
the
current
Apple
proposal,
it
seems
unlikely
anyone
would
even
attempt
to
challenge
the
gatekeeper’s
monopoly.
It’s
simply
not
worth
it.
If
the
EU
Commission
lets
this
pass,
the
DMA
will
be
lost.”
“Big
Tech’s
strategy
towards
the
DMA
is
to
introduce
changes
that
appear
to
open
up
their
walled
gardens,
but
that
are
actually
unworkable
or
unappealing
to
businesses
and
users.”
Apple
previously
decided
to
drop
support
for
progressive
web
apps
(PWAs)
in
the
EU,
going
as
far
as
to
blame
the
DMA.
After
facing
a
potential
investigation
from
the
EU,
the
company
has
walked
back
that
decision.
PWAs
will
continue
to
exist
— though
they’ll
have
to
be
built
on
WebKit,
the
engine
used
by
Safari.
As
one
of
its
responses
to
the
DMA,
Apple
is
allowing
third-party
browsers
to
use
their
own
engines
in
iOS
in
the
EU.
But
PWAs
downloaded
through
those
browsers
will
still
be
reliant
on
Safari’s
WebKit.
“Reading
between
the
lines,
Big
Tech’s
strategy
towards
the
DMA
is
to
introduce
changes
that
appear
to
open
up
their
walled
gardens,
but
that
are
actually
unworkable
or
unappealing
to
businesses
and
users,”
said
von
Thun.
“Instead
of
accepting
such
inadequate
measures,
the
EU
Commission
should
consult
businesses
supposed
to
benefit
from
them,
and
use
this
feedback
to
push
the
gatekeepers
to
do
better.”
All
of
the
gatekeepers
being
targeted
by
the
DMA
still
need
to
get
their
proposals
approved
by
the
European
Commission.
In
January,
an
EU
commissioner
told
Reuters
that
the
bloc
would
take
“strong
action”
if
it
feels
the
solutions
being
proposed
aren’t
good
enough.
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