Apple set to challenge latest EU crackdown on big tech dominance

By Samuel Stolton and Stephanie Bodoni

Apple Inc. is set to challenge the European Union’s fresh crackdown on Big Tech’s dominance in the first of what is expected to be several appeals against the Digital Markets Act.

The company will dispute the EU regulator’s decision to put all of the App Store into the bloc’s new digital antitrust list. It’ll argue also its iMessage service shouldn’t be subject to closer scrutiny from regulators, according to people familiar with the matter.

Apple’s appeal is still in draft form and could change before the Nov. 16 deadline to file challenges at the EU’s General Court, the people said who asked not to be identified because the matter is private. Apple and the European Commission didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

The move could set the stage for yet another legal stand-off between the world’s biggest tech company and the EU. Apple is battling EU lawyers in a dispute over alleged unpaid taxes in Ireland. Apple also faces separate EU antitrust probes into its tap-and-pay technology and into its treatment of music streaming rivals such as Spotify Technology SA.

The bloc’s new DMA rules impose a rigid regime on the largest digital firms and boost the EU commission’s existing powers as the region’s antitrust enforcer.

It will be illegal for certain platforms to favor their own services over those of rivals. They’ll be barred from combining personal data across their different services, prohibited from using data they collect from third-party merchants to compete against them, and will have to allow users to download apps from rival platforms.

Even with an appeal pending, Apple will still be required to comply with the rules when they take effect on March 6. Apple said in a filing this month that it expects to make changes to the App Store as a result of the bloc’s new rules.

Alphabet Inc.’s Google Search, Apple’s Safari, Amazon.com Inc.’s marketplace, Bytedance Ltd.’s TikTok and Meta Platforms Inc.’s Facebook are among a list of 22 Big Tech services that come under the scope of the EU’s Digital Markets Act.