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iPhone user: With the entry into force of the Digital Markets Act, new rules apply to offers from large Internet companies in the EU
Photo: Bernd Diekjobst / dpa
On March 7th, the EU's new law for digital markets, the Digital Markets Act (DMA for short), comes into force.
The new set of rules is intended to ensure more competition for digital offerings; large platforms will have to adapt - or fear drastic penalties.
What is the idea behind the DMA?
The law is intended to ensure more competition in digital services and better opportunities for new offers.
The basic assumption is that some of the large platform operators have become so powerful that they could cement their market position.
The EU Commission calls such platforms “gatekeepers”.
The DMA rules are intended to break up the power position of these offers for the benefit of customers.
Which companies and services are affected?
The EU Commission has so far defined 22 services from six companies as gatekeepers.
Not surprisingly, these include offers from companies such as Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, Google parent Alphabet and the Facebook group Meta, such as Google's Chrome browser, Meta's Instagram app, the Amazon Marketplace and Apple's App Store.
In addition, the video app TikTok from ByteDance, originally from China, was included in the list.
What do you notice as a user?
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In order to comply with the legal requirements, the Facebook group Meta asked its users for a number of consents before the DMA came into force
Photo: Torsten Kleinz / Facebook
Two DMA editions stand out.
Meta's WhatsApp chat service, which is popular in Germany, is to be opened up to other services and Apple must for the first time allow apps from sources other than the in-house App Store to be installed on the iPhone.
However: While WhatsApp has to create access, competing services such as Signal and Threema have not yet wanted to network with each other.
With Apple's regulation for alternative app platforms, it is unclear how many developers will accept the associated new rules or whether they would prefer to remain loyal to the company's App Store.
In this respect, it is questionable whether the legislators' ideas come true in practice.
How does WhatsApp want to implement interoperability?
Messages from other chat services should end up in a separate area of the app.
This is intended to make it clear that different security standards could apply to their messages than to WhatsApp, WhatsApp manager Dick Brouwer told Wired magazine.
WhatsApp uses Signal's encryption technology, which makes it easier to connect with other services that also use it.
However, other reliable encryption protocols will also be supported.
Why don't other services want to network?
Signal points out that its service goes beyond protecting content: "We have developed novel techniques to encrypt sensitive metadata such as profile names and photos, contact lists, group memberships and information about who is sending messages to whom." Other major apps “didn’t come close to meeting Signal’s data protection standards.”
At Threema it was said that WhatsApp specifies all the protocols, "and we don't know for sure what happens to the user data when it is transferred to WhatsApp, especially since WhatsApp is not open source."
There are also unsolved problems such as addressing, since WhatsApp uses the telephone number, while Threema uses a randomly generated ID.
An interconnection could potentially deanonymize Threema users.
How should alternative app stores work on the iPhone?
App developers can leave everything as it is and, as before, sell their applications exclusively via Apple's App Store and give 15 or 30 percent of the revenue they generate there with digital goods and subscriptions to the company.
However, if you want to make use of the new options, different conditions apply.
For applications that you distribute via Apple's App Store, the fee drops to ten and 17 percent respectively, to which three percent is added if you use the group's billing system.
What's new is a so-called "core technology levy" of 50 cents per initial installation of an app, which Apple charges if an app has been downloaded at least a million times within twelve months.
Apple should also receive these 50 cents for apps that are sold via alternative marketplaces.
According to Apple, this affects around one percent of app providers.
Will app providers agree to the new rules?
The gaming company Epic Games, whose popular gaming app "Fortnite" was banned from Apple's App Store after violating the rules, wants to bring its own download platform to the iPhone in order to be able to offer the game for iPhones again.
The app marketplace Setapp, which offers subscriptions to a number of different applications, also plans to launch in April.
At the same time, the music streaming market leader Spotify and Epic criticize the new rules harshly.
Spotify manager Avery Gardiner, who is responsible for competition, says Apple's implementation "doesn't even come close" to meeting the DMA requirements.
Where do critics see problems?
From Spotify's perspective, Apple's switch to a new fee structure and its "core technology levy", among other things, contradict the DMA.
Spotify is one of the offers for which, under Apple's new rules, the "core technology levy" would be due due to its great popularity and could add up to hefty fees.
Because it wouldn’t have to be paid for for currently active users.
Even if someone only installs the app and then leaves it unused on their iPhone, Spotify would have to pay Apple 50 cents after the first automatic update of this app in a twelve-month period.
The US company has designed the new taxes in such a way that it is not attractive or affordable for developers to sell their apps through other providers' app stores, criticize Epic and Spotify, among others.
How does Apple feel about the DMA requirements?
The group already insisted in the DMA run-up to the fact that app sales via the in-house store were the better solution for users: this way they could be better protected against data theft and fraud.
The company also now emphasizes that it sees apps from other sources as a potential security risk that must be contained.
They will therefore also be checked to see whether they contain any false information about their functions.
Authorities and some companies demanded assurances from Apple that they could stop downloads of apps from alternative marketplaces.
What happens if European users leave the EU?
According to Apple, the DMA innovations generally only apply to users whose profile is set to one of the EU countries and who are actually in the Union.
If you leave the EU for shorter trips, everything will work unchanged.
But if they leave for “too long,” they won’t be able to install new app marketplaces.
Apps downloaded from such marketplaces should continue to run, but cannot be updated.
And what does it look like on Android smartphones?
It has long been possible to install apps from alternative sources on phones with the Google Android operating system.
However, Google has to adapt to the DMA in other areas: In the web search, results from specialized search engines, for example for flights, hotels or shopping offers, will be presented in more detail in the future.
Who decides whether gatekeepers meet the DMA requirements?
The EU Commission does this, including with the help of market studies and statements from other companies.
EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager recently said compliance with the DMA rules would be assessed as a top priority.
Shortly before the requirements have to be applied, Vestager also pointed out that the $1.84 billion fine imposed on Apple in the dispute over its handling of music streaming services was largely intended as a "deterrent" to demonstrate the Commission's determination .
She emphasized to the financial service Bloomberg that companies should not make their DMA implementation “unattractive” for their customers and users.
Violations of the DMA result in penalties of up to 10 percent of annual sales - and up to 20 percent in the case of repeated violations.
The last option is to break up the company.
In the end, courts could decide on possible punishments.
mak/dpa