EU Spares Apple Maps and Apple Ads
The European Commission today said it found that Apple Maps and Apple Ads should not be designated as "gateways" under the EU's Digital Markets Act.
In a press release, the European Commission said that Apple Maps and Apple Ads are not big enough individually to qualify as "important gateways between business users and end users," and therefore the platforms will not be subject to stricter regulations. This follows an investigation that began in late November.
"This assessment is based on a number of considerations, including that Apple Maps has a relatively low overall usage rate in the EU, and that Apple Ads has very limited scale in the online advertising sector in the EU," the European Commission said.
Apple as a whole is still considered a "gatekeeper" under the Digital Markets Act.
Apple Ads and Apple Maps will have more in common soon, as Apple reportedly plans to start showing ads within Apple Maps search results as soon as this year.
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