Apple's iPadOS caught by EU's digital market obligations
iPad-Photo by Marek Levak on Pexels
(BRUSSELS) - iPadOS, the operating system for Apple tablets, is the latest large Internet 'gatekeeper' to be brought within the scope of the EU's Digital Markets Act obligations, the EU Commission announced Monday.
The Digital Markets Act (DMA) is the EU's law to make the markets in the digital sector fairer and more contestable. The Commission had in September 2023 designated Apple under the DMA as a 'gatekeeper' for its operating system iOS, its browser Safari and its App Store. The same day, the EU executive opened a market investigation to assess whether Apple's iPadOS, despite not meeting 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 investigation's findings, 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.
"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," said EC vice-president Margrethe Vestager. "Apple has six months to make iPadOS compliant with the DMA."
Apple has now six months to ensure full compliance with the DMA obligations as applied to iPadOS.
Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, ByteDance, Meta and Microsoft, the six gatekeepers designated by the Commission last September, had to fully comply with all DMA obligations by 7 March 2024. The Commission has been assessing the compliance reports setting out gatekeepers' compliance measures, and gathering feedback from stakeholders, including in the context of workshops.
Digital Markets Act