More from How the EU’s DMA is changing Big Tech: all of the news and updates
Today the European Commission decided against designating Apple’s iMessage and three Microsoft products as core platform services under the Digital Markets Act. “Excluding these popular services from DMA rules means consumers and businesses won’t be offered the breadth of choice that already exists on other, more open platforms,” Google spokesperson Emily Clarke tells The Verge.
Google, of course, lobbied for iMessage’s designation.
In compliance with the Digital Markets Act, Apple now lets developers add alternative marketplaces and submit their apps for Notarization, two key steps as Apple prepares to end its exclusive role in iPhone app distribution with its iOS 17.4 release in the EU next month.
Epic Games and AltStore have publicly announced plans to launch iOS app stores, but who knows how many developers will use them.
It’s a difference of three letters, but Apple contends iPadOS is in a different EU regulatory category than iOS, so most of its newly (sort of) open app store policies only apply to the latter. 9to5Mac has a breakdown of that nuance, starting with one big limitation:
The ability to install third-party app marketplaces and download apps from third-party app marketplaces will be an option only on the iPhone.
And of course, that’s far from the only fine print.
Among iOS 12.4’s DMA-mandated changes, there’s a prompt to pick a default web browser the first time people in EU markets open Safari after they upgrade.
9to5Mac reports that, according to Apple, options will include the top 12 browsers for that country, presented in random order.1 It also has the lists for each country, so Luxembourg users, for example, should see Aloha, Brave, Chrome, DuckDuckGo, Ecosia, Edge, Firefox, Web@Work, Onion Browser, Opera, Safari, and You.com AI Search Assistant.
Here’s the Wall Street Journal with a look at how Apple could maintain “close oversight” of iOS sideloading in the EU after the Digital Markets Act’s March deadline:
The company will give itself the ability to review each app downloaded outside of its App Store. Apple also plans to collect fees from developers that offer downloads outside of the App Store, said people familiar with the company’s plans.
I will be very interested to see if the EU is happy with such a tightly controlled approach. The EU’s top antitrust official Margrethe Vestager recently said it “stands absolutely ready to do noncompliance cases.”
[The Wall Street Journal]
For years, Apple’s App Store policies have made it impossible for apps to sell digital services and goods on their own terms. A new law in the EU could change all of that — and Spotify is prepared.
