Apple’s iPadOS subject to tough EU technical regulations – EU

BRUSSELS: Apple’s operating system for the iPad has been designated a gatekeeper by EU antitrust regulators under the bloc’s landmark technology rules because it is critical to business users, the European Commission said on Monday. Under the Digital Markets Act, 22 services owned by Apple, Alphabet, Google, Microsoft, Amazon, opens new tab Meta Platforms, opens new tab and TikTok owner ByteDance have already been labeled gatekeepers. Control access to their platform. The European Executive’s decision came after an investigation launched in September last year. Apple’s operating system iOS, its browser Safari and its App Store were designated gatekeepers last year.

“Our market investigation showed that, despite not meeting the threshold, iPadOS is an important gateway that many companies rely on to reach their customers,” EU antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager said in a statement. “The Commission said that Apple’s business user numbers exceeded the quantitative limit eleven times, while its end user numbers were close to the limit and were predicted to grow in the near future. It said both business users and end users are locked into iPadOS due to the larger ecosystem. Apple, which has six months to comply with the DMA, said it is “working to comply with the DMA across all designated services.” “We will continue to engage constructively with the European Commission for DMA violations.” Companies may face fines up to 10% of their global annual turnover for DMA violations.