Apple’s iPad operating system has been designated by the EU’s antitrust regulator as a gatekeeper under the region’s landmark technology rules because of its importance to business users, the European Commission announced on Monday.
Under the Digital Markets Act, which took effect this year, 22 services owned by Apple, Alphabet Inc.’s Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Metaplatforms and TikTok owner ByteDance have already been labeled gatekeepers to control access to their platforms. is pasted.
The European authorities’ decision follows an investigation launched in September last year. Apple’s iOS operating system, Safari browser, and App Store were designated as gatekeepers last year.
“Our market research shows that iPadOS is a critical gateway that many companies rely on to access their customers, even though it does not meet standards,” EU antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager said in a statement. It turned out to be the case,” he said.
The committee said that while Apple’s business user count exceeds the quantitative benchmark by a factor of 11, the end user count is close to the benchmark and is expected to increase in the near future. Due to the large iPadOS ecosystem, both business and end users are locked into iPadOS, the company said.
Apple, which has six months to comply with the DMA, said it “continues to engage constructively with the European Commission to comply with the DMA across all specified services.”
Violations of the DMA can result in companies being fined as much as 10% of their global annual revenue.
Date first uploaded: April 29, 2024 17:32 IST
