Photo by Roberto Nickson on Unsplash
The European Commission has designated Apple with respect to iPadOS, its operating system for tablets, as a gatekeeper under the digital markets act (“DMA”).
Apple now has six months to ensure full compliance of iPadOS with the DMA obligations.
The case dates to 5 September 2023 when the Commission designated Apple as a gatekeeper for its operating system iOS, its browser Safari and its App Store.
The Commission has also opened a market investigation to assess whether Apple’s iPadOS, despite not meeting the “quantitative thresholds” laid down in the DMA, constitutes an important gateway for business users to reach end users and therefore should be designated as a gatekeeper.
The Commission’s investigation found that Apple presents the features of a gatekeeper in relation to iPadOS, as among others:
Apple’s business user numbers exceeded the quantitative threshold elevenfold, while its end user numbers were close to the threshold and are predicted to rise in the near future.
End users are locked-in to iPadOS. Apple leverages its large ecosystem to disincentivise end users from switching to other operating systems for tablets.
Business users are locked-in to iPadOS because of its large and commercially attractive user base, and its importance for certain use cases, such as gaming apps.
On the basis of the findings of the investigation, the Commission concluded that iPadOS constitutes an important gateway for business users to reach end users, and that Apple enjoys an entrenched and durable position with respect to iPadOS. Apple has now six months to ensure full compliance with the DMA obligations as applied to iPadOS.
Commenting on the case on Monday, Margrethe Vestager, Executive Vice-President in charge of competition policy, said, “The Digital Markets Act is a dynamic tool which allows us to tackle the realities of digital markets.”
“Today, we have brought Apple’s iPadOS within the scope of the DMA obligations. Our market investigation showed that despite not meeting the thresholds, iPadOS constitutes an important gateway on which many companies rely to reach their customers. Today’s decision will ensure that fairness and contestability are preserved also on this platform, in addition to the 22 other services we designated last September. Apple has six months to make iPadOS compliant with the DMA.”
Further comment came from Thierry Breton, Commissioner for Internal Market.
The French official said, “Today we conclude the first market investigation for qualitative designation under the DMA finding that also iPadOS is an important gateway for businesses to reach consumers. Apple has now six months to comply with the DMA obligations.”
“We continue monitoring market developments and will not hesitate to open new investigations should other services below the thresholds present characteristics to be considered important gateways for business users.”
