The European Union will apply its most important market fairness and contestability rules to Apple’s iPadOS, the Commission announced today. This means that the Digital Markets Act (DMA) will now apply to four Apple-owned platforms, which increases the regulatory risk for the tech giant by including its tablet ecosystem.
There are six months left for Apple to make sure that iPadOS is in line with the DMA.
Apple may have to make big changes to how it runs its tablet platform in the EU to make sure it meets a lot of DMA rules. For example, so-called “gatekeepers” won’t be able to self-prefer their own services, and Apple will have to let third-party app stores, sideloading of apps, and support for third-party payment options work.
As another DMA compliance step, Apple will have to make non-WebKit versions of Safari available on iPadOS in the next six months. This is something it has already done for iOS. People who use tablets to talk to customers will have the legal right to FRAND terms, which mean terms that are fair, sensible, and don’t discriminate.
The Commission made Apple’s iOS mobile platform, App Store, and Safari browser subject to the DMA’s set of upfront “dos and don’ts” last fall. Violators could face harsh punishments of up to 10% of their global annual turnover, or even more for repeat offenses.
Apple has said a number of changes to how it runs its platforms in the area since then. But some parts of its reaction to the DMA are already being officially looked into because they may not have been in line with the law. Last month, the Commission began the first round of official DMA investigations.
The EU’s first DMA labels for tablets did not include Apple’s operating system because it did not have enough users. But the regulation also lets the Commission look at qualitative factors, which is where tech giants have a strong and long-lasting position. That’s what took place here.
The Commission announced the results of its market study and said that the number of business users of iPadOS is eleven times higher than the threshold. The number of end users is “close” to the threshold and is expected to rise soon.
What it found was also that both personal and business users are “locked-in” to iPadOS. It said, “Apple uses its large ecosystem to make end users less likely to switch to other tablet operating systems.” “Business users are stuck on iPadOS because it has a large user base that is good for business and is important for some use cases, like gaming apps.”
“[E]ven though [iPadOS] doesn’t meet the quantitative thresholds set by the DMA, it is still an important way for businesses to reach end users and should be designated as a gatekeeper,” the Commission said.
After iPadOS was named, Apple sent an email with a message. “We will keep working with the European Commission in a constructive way to make sure that all designated services follow the DMA.” “Our main goal will still be to give our European customers the best products and services possible, while also reducing the new privacy and data security risks that the DMA brings to our users,” the company wrote.
The Commission had given itself one year to look into the iPadOS market. The EU started the review right after releasing the first DMA designations, so it should have taken them about eight months to finish this in-depth look at the tablet platform. It was revealed by the Commission that this is the first and only market investigation it has done since the DMA began.
Also Read: Apple Changes Its App Store Rules to Let Old Game Emulators Work Everywhere
Back in February, the EU chose not to make Apple’s iMessage subject to the DMA. This meant that the company did not have to make its messaging system work with other systems.
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