Microsoft and Apple have argued that some of their key services are too unpopular to be “gatekeepers” under new European Union legislation the Digital Markets Act, according to anonymous sources cited by the Financial Times on Monday.
Microsoft argued that its search engine Bing is far less popular than Google Search, and so the same rules shouldn’t apply to both, according to the reporting.
Bing commands about 3% of the share of global search, according to StatCounter. Google Search, in contrast, commands about 91% of the share.
Tech giant Apple has also argued that its iMessage service is too small for the new EU rules to apply, according to the sources. Every iPhone, iPad and Mac has iMessage installed by default, but that doesn’t mean every Apple product owner uses iMessage and the user numbers for the feature are not made public.
The Digital Markets Act seeks to force large tech companies to abide by new rules including sharing more data and making their services available to rivals. A list of companies and services impacted by the Act — termed “gatekeepers” — is expected to be published on Wednesday, according to the report. It is unclear if Bing and iMessage are going to be on the list, the report adds.
To come under the auspices of the Act, a platform needs to be large enough to command 45 million active monthly users in the EU, and have an annual turnover of more than $8 billion in the EU, or a market cap of more than $80.9 billion.
European officials, Apple and Microsoft declined to comment on the Financial Times reporting.
