Apple has launched a broader legal attack against the European Union’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) . The company told the EU’s second-highest court that the new competition regime illegally forces to make changes to the iPhone, App Store and iMessage it (via Bloomberg).
Apple’s arguments were presented before the General Court in Luxembourg. The company claims that the DMA, which comes into force in 2023, imposes protections property rights under EU law. Apple told the court that the law imposes “extremely onerous and intrusive burdens” on designated gatekeepers, which include Apple, Alphabet, Meta, Amazon, Microsoft, ByteDance and Booking. Apple is the first US company to challenge the framework’s legality outright, following the TikTok defeat.
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The DMA requires major tech companies, such as Apple, to make essential services interoperable with competitors and to relax business model restrictions. The law aims to prevent companies from exploiting their market dominance to strengthen their power. In its filing, Apple opposes three decisions related to the law.
What does the DMA Law propose?
First, it challenges obligations that require iPhone hardware and services to be interoperable with competing devices like headphones or smartwatches. Apple argues that mandating interoperability with unknown or untested classes of hardware could undermine user security , violate intellectual property protections, and reduce privacy controls central to iOS's security architecture.
Second, Apple is challenging the inclusion of the App Store as a covered service under the DMA. EU regulators have previously found that Apple’s control over app distribution confers “structural gatekeeper power.” In April, the authorities imposed a €500 million fine on Apple for violating anti-smuggling provisions. Apple is challenging both the designation and the fine in separate cases. The company says the App Store should not be treated as a single service for the purposes of the DMA and should therefore be excluded from the scope of the law.
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Third, Apple challenges the Commission’s move to examine whether iMessage should have been classified as a covered service. The Commission ultimately decided not to subject iMessage to the full DMA obligations because the service does not directly generate revenue for Apple. Apple argues that the initiation of this investigation was in itself procedurally improper.
The Commission’s lawyer, Paul-John Loewenthal, argued that Apple has built a monopoly by maintaining unilateral control over the iPhone platform. He told the judges that Apple’s “absolute control” allows it to make “supernormal profits in complementary markets where its competitors are at a disadvantage,” adding: “Only Apple has the keys to this walled garden. It decides who gets it and who can offer their products and services to iPhone users. And through that control, Apple has locked out over a third of European smartphone users.”
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This case marks the first time Apple has asked EU judges to limit the legal scope of the DMAbefore the law is fully implemented across its ecosystem. A final ruling could determine the extent to which the EU can force Apple to unlock technical layers of the iPhone, restructure its App Store rules or subject iMessage to regulatory requirements.
