On Thursday, 5 February, the European Commission decided that neither Apple’s online advertising service nor its maps service would be designated a ‘gatekeeper’ under the Digital Markets Act (DMA). The company had brought both services to the European Commission’s attention last November.
Apple had then argued that, in their current form, neither of these tools constituted a ‘gatekeeper’ within the meaning of the DMA—i.e., a service that has a significant impact on the market and direct relations between consumers and professional users.
The European Commission found in Apple’s favour, believing (after its assessment) Apple Maps to have “a relatively low overall usage rate in the EU” and Apple Ads to have “very limited scale in the online advertising sector in the EU.”
Nevertheless, the European Commission has explained that this decision does not affect the ‘gatekeeper’ designation that Apple received in September 2023 and April 2024 for other core platform services (see EUROPE 13669/2) and has specified that it would be keeping a close eye on how [the company’s] services develop. (Original version in French by Isalia Stieffatre)