Ddos 
Following the designation of Safari, iOS, iPadOS, and the App Store, Apple may soon see even more of its services brought under the strict oversight of the EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA). The European Commission announced that it has received data submitted by Apple indicating that Apple Maps and Apple Ads may now have reached the thresholds that qualify them as “Gatekeepers” under the DMA.
This means the EU will, over the next 45 days, conduct an assessment to determine whether these two services should be formally designated as gatekeepers — a status that would obligate them to follow a stringent set of rules, including prohibitions on self-preferencing and restrictions against locking users into proprietary ecosystems.
Under the DMA, a service may be classified as a gatekeeper if, over the past three financial years, it has had more than 45 million monthly active end users and 10,000 annual business users.
Apple, however, is far from willing to accept such a designation without challenge. According to a report from Reuters, the company has already filed a formal rebuttal and will soon enter discussions with the EU, arguing that neither service should be considered a gatekeeper.
Apple’s central argument rests on its purportedly limited influence within the EU market:
- Apple Maps: The company claims its usage across the EU remains extremely low, far behind competitors such as Google Maps.
- Advertising Services: Apple also denies being a major player in the European online advertising sector, emphasizing that its market share is negligible compared with Google, Meta, TikTok, and even the advertising platform of “X.”
“We look forward to further explaining to the European Commission why Apple Maps and Apple Ads should not be designated as gatekeepers,” the company said in its statement.
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