The General Court of the European Union issued a ruling on Wednesday local time, formally rejecting Apple's legal challenge against the "gatekeeper" designation of its App Store and iOS platform, and maintaining the EU's previous identification of Apple as a critical platform service under the Digital Markets Act (DMA).
According to the judgment of the General Court of Luxembourg quoted by Reuters, the court stated that "the General Court rejected all of Apple's claims regarding its role as a gatekeeper in the App Store and iOS." This means that the European Commission's regulatory framework for Apple's multiple platform services has received judicial support.
Apple filed the case with the Luxembourg General Court in 2024. Previously, the European Commission determined in accordance with the Digital Market Law that Apple's five App Stores on iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV and Apple Watch constitute a "single core platform service" and therefore need to comply with a series of strict obligations under the DMA.
Under the DMA regulations, large platforms designated as "gatekeepers" are not allowed to unfairly favor themselves between their own services and those of competitors, nor are they allowed to merge and misuse user personal data across different services. At the same time, such platforms must provide users with the option to choose alternative app stores and expand third-party app distribution channels.
In this case, Apple not only challenged the App Store's "gatekeeper" designation, but also challenged iOS's decision to be defined as a "gateway platform." According to the EU's regulatory thinking, platforms that obtain this "gateway" status are obliged to ensure that competing services can interoperate with their operating systems, thereby lowering technical and commercial barriers.
Apple also tried to deny the EU's characterization of iMessage. The European Union classifies iMessage as a "non-number-dependent interpersonal communication service" (NIICS), which requires compliance with EU telecommunications regulatory rules. Apple disputed this classification, but the General Court held that the relevant litigation claims filed by Apple regarding the iMessage service did not meet the conditions for admissibility, and therefore ruled that this part was "inadmissible."
According to the DMA, to be recognized as a "gatekeeper", a company must meet a series of objective criteria, including achieving annual sales of at least 7.5 billion euros within the EU, or having a market value of more than 75 billion euros, while having more than 45 million monthly active users in the EU and more than 10,000 active business users per year. Platforms that reach this level of scale and influence will be included in the DMA’s key regulatory targets.