Apple Notifies EU That Apple Ads & Maps Meet Digital Markets Act Thresholds

Key Takeaways

• Apple Notifications: Apple informed the European Commission that Apple Ads and Apple Maps now meet DMA thresholds.
• Gatekeeper Review: Regulators have 45 working days to determine whether either service should be designated a gatekeeper.
• Compliance Timeline: A gatekeeper designation would give Apple six months to comply with DMA requirements for those services.

Deep Dive

Apple has officially landed two more of its services on the EU’s regulatory radar. On Thursday, the European Commission confirmed that the tech giant notified Brussels that both Apple Ads and Apple Maps meet the size and scale thresholds set under the Digital Markets Act (DMA), Europe’s sweeping effort to rein in the dominance of major digital players.

This notification kicks off a 45-working-day clock for the Commission. By the end of that period, it must decide whether Apple should be designated a gatekeeper for either (or both) of these services. Gatekeeper status isn’t just a label. It carries serious compliance obligations designed to stop platform giants from squeezing out competitors or stacking the deck in their own favor.

Should the Commission give the green light to a designation, Apple would then have six months to bring the services into full compliance with the DMA’s rules.

The law itself casts a wide net. It applies to a range of so-called core platform services, from app stores and search engines to messaging platforms, when they are proven to be essential gateways between businesses and consumers in the EU. Regulators presume this market power exists when a service surpasses 45 million monthly active end users and 10,000 yearly business users in the bloc for three straight financial years. Apple says both Apple Ads and Apple Maps now hit those marks.

For now, the Commission hasn’t offered any early hints on which way it’s leaning. But another potential gatekeeper designation for Apple would mark yet another step in Europe’s ongoing bid to reshape how Big Tech engages with consumers, and rivals, across the continent.

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