What is a DMA Gatekeeper? Updates on Google, Alphabet, Safari, Safari and Safari in the Mobile Walled Garden and iOS 17.4
The EU initially listed a number of other Microsoft tools as gatekeeper services. After regulators agreed with Microsoft’s argument that Edge, Bing and Microsoft Advertising don’t qualify for the Direct Marketing Association, the services were spared from being included.
The European Commission presumes a platform is a gatekeeper if it meets two conditions. First, it must have an annual EU revenue of at least €7.5 billion in each of the last three fiscal years or an average market cap of €75 billion in the last fiscal year, while providing its core platform to at least three EU member states. It must operate a core platform with 45 million monthly active users in EU and 10,000 yearly active users in each of the last three fiscal years.
According to the commission, each of the designated gatekeepers has specific services that are subject to the rules of the DMA. Gatekeepers who don’t obey the rules can face fines of between 10 and 20 percent of global revenue.
Alphabet has a sprawling empire, stretching from a dominant search engine to a major web browser and popular mobile operating system, with many services interlinked to augment their power. It has the widest range of covered services under the DMA.
Consequently, the company announced a variety of changes in January and March, affecting everything from data sharing to search results for EU users. The highlights include:
Some competitors have been upset by the proposed changes. The search changes violate the rules against self-preferencing and actually increase the rate at which users will remain in the walled garden, claimed the online reviews platform. Megan Gray, former counsel for rival search engine DuckDuckGo, has questioned the entire concept of choice screens as an effective vehicle for promoting competition. Tim Sweeney, the CEO of the company that is in litigation with Google, has objected strenuously to the framework of the payment system. So we probably haven’t seen the end of questions over Alphabet’s dominance — but it’s staked out its starting ground.
Apple is one of the highest-profile DMA targets, thanks to its expansive mobile walled garden. The iOS operating system, Safari web browser, and App Store are all designated as “core platform services,” and much of the conversation has centered on how far it will have to open them up.
The changes rolling out for European users in iOS 17.4, particularly support for third-party app stores, are intended to address long-standing complaints about Apple’s walled-off ecosystem. But numerous developers and critics have described them as insufficient or even “malicious compliance.” Apple’s new rules would require App Store alternatives to either pay a €0.50 (~54 cents USD) Core Technology Fee for apps with over 1 million downloads or stick to the 15 to 30 percent cut the company currently takes.
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.”
Given that, companies haven’t exactly lined up to accept Apple’s offer. A handful of third-party app marketplaces have been announced by Epic, MacPaw, and Mobivention, but only the latter claims it’ll be available for iOS users on March 7th, right after the DMA takes effect. Similarly, while rival web browser providers like Google and Mozilla are seemingly experimenting with new iOS browsers, neither company has officially announced when those apps will be available.
Meta has absorbed rival social networks as well as a powerful ad platform. These areas have the majority of the services covered by the DMA.
Meta launched a 9.99 per month ad-free tier for Facebook andInstagram, then gave the tier as of March 1st to address concerns about the amount of ads being shown to users. an extra fee for linked accounts. It also paused ads for users younger than 18, although its long-term plans there are less clear.
The choice to lean on a paid option resulted in a lawsuit from the European Consumer Organisation (BEUC), which claimed the “very high subscription fee” meant users “do not have a real choice.” In January of this year, Meta introduced a few data protection features that included the ability to severlinked Facebook andInstagram accounts.
The most amazing change for many people is the introduction of third-party cross- platform messaging, which was announced by Meta last year. Wired recently outlined what this third-party messaging support might look like for WhatsApp and Messenger, and we expect more details as the DMA takes effect.
Changes are in the works despite Meta appealing some pieces of its designation. In November, it argued that Messenger and Marketplace didn’t belong on the list, saying the former was an integrated Facebook feature and the latter a consumer-to-consumer service where Meta doesn’t act as an intermediary. As of this week’s deadline, the challenge remains ongoing.
Amazon, Facebook, Twitter, and TikTok under the German Mobile Advertising Act (DMA): What Has It Learned?
What Amazon hasn’t detailed yet, though, is what kind of changes — if any — it’s making to ensure its marketplace fosters competition under the DMA. The company can’t give its brands preferential treatment in search results or copy products from third-party sellers according to the rules. And Amazon has long been the subject of antitrust scrutiny in the EU, where regulators accused it of misusing seller data to get ahead of the competition. The company settled the charges and promised to not use non-public data and to make it easier for more sellers to appear within its “Featured Offer” box.
The e-commerce giant has outlined some of the changes it’s making to the way businesses manage their ads, as well as customers’ control over them. Customers who visit the EU store will be asked if they want to give their information for personalize ads. Accepting or denying these terms will affect Amazon’s ability to collect information across its entertainment services, such as Prime Video, IMDb, and twitch, as well as on its smart home devices, e-readers, app stores, and operating systems. That could make it harder for Amazon to sell personalized ads in the EU.
Microsoft’s Windows operating system falls under the DMA’s regulations, and that’s changing how much the company promotes — or lets users avoid — numerous other apps and services inside it.
Microsoft will allow Windows machines in EEA markets to remove Bing results from Windows Search, so Google could potentially list its own search results here instead. Third parties like Google will also be able to add feeds into the Windows Widget board. The Camera, Cortana, and Photos apps can be uninstallied as part of the rules for the DMA that are in Windows 11.
Chinese giant ByteDance is the only non-US company designated as a gatekeeper under the DMA so far, and it’s got only one covered service: the social network TikTok.
ByteDance shared how TikTok will have to comply with the DMA. The platform will let users in Europe transfer their data to other apps that have registered with TikTok. Users can grant permission to allow developers to port activity from TikTok to their own apps. TikTok said it’s also improved its “Download your Data” tool that lets individual users export and download their posts and other information. And it will have “enhanced data portability solutions” for business accounts.
The EU court shot down TikTok’s request to change its designation after finding no risk of serious and irreversible harm to the company.
The status quo is unlikely to change according to some experts. Many of these companies have announced compliance plans, and for most of them, this is 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.
That makes it difficult to gauge how much consumers and smaller competitors actually stand to gain. No change to power structures that help keep those companies at the top has been proposed by the “gatekeepers,” which is why he notes that some actions will take time to yield, according to the senior policy advisor at European Digital Rights. It is possible that if the people are allowed to remove the Google apps on their phones it will benefit the smaller providers.
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.
Apple’s response to the DMA: Using Safari’s Webkit to build Progressive Web Apps in the EU is up to the Apple
Apple previously decided to drop support for progressive web apps (PWAs) in the EU, going as far as to blame the DMA. The company has backpedaled on their decision to face an investigation from the EU. 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. Those browsers will rely on the same WebKit that Safari uses.