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Europe throws out Apple's attempt to free App Store & iMessage from regulations

AppleInsider • Wed, 08 Jul 2026

Europe throws out Apple's attempt to free App Store & iMessage from regulations

Apple has lost another round in its legal challenges to the European Union and its Digital Markets Act, this time over whether iMessage and its App Store should even be subject to that regulation. Apple is challenging the DMA in ever higher courts in the EU - image credit: EU Back in 2023 , Apple acknowledged that it qualified under the then-new definition of being what the EU called a gatekeeper service. But key to that is the size of the operation, and since 2024, Apple has been claiming it runs five smaller App Stores rather than one large one. Instead, Apple says that there are different App Stores for the iPhone , iPad , Mac , Apple TV , and the Apple Watch . Now according to Reuters , the EU General Court in Luxembourg has ruled that is irrelevant . Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums

What happened?

Apple has lost another round in its legal challenges to the European Union and its Digital Markets Act, this time over whether iMessage and its App Store should even be subject to that regulation. Apple is challenging the DMA in ever higher courts in the EU - image credit: EU Back in 2023 , Apple acknowledged that it qualified under the then-new definition of being what the EU called a gatekeeper service. But key to that is the size of the operation, and since 2024, Apple has been claiming it runs five smaller App Stores rather than one large one. Instead, Apple says that there are different App Stores for the iPhone , iPad , Mac , Apple TV , and the Apple Watch . Now according to Reuters , the EU General Court in Luxembourg has ruled that is irrelevant . Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums

Story details

Apple has lost another round in its legal challenges to the European Union and its Digital Markets Act, this time over whether iMessage and its App Store should even be subject to that regulation.

Apple is challenging the DMA in ever higher courts in the EU - image credit: EU Back in 2023 , Apple acknowledged that it qualified under the then-new definition of being what the EU called a gatekeeper service.

But key to that is the size of the operation, and since 2024, Apple has been claiming it runs five smaller App Stores rather than one large one.

Why it matters

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Original source

https://appleinsider.com/articles/26/07/08/europe-throws-out-apples-attempt-to-free-app-store-imessage-from-regulations?utm_source=rss