EU Weighs Gatekeeper Status for Apple Ads and Maps as Company Pushes Back
The EU is assessing whether Apple Maps and Apple Ads qualify as gatekeepers under the DMA, a move Apple firmly disputes.
Apple is once again facing heightened scrutiny from Europe’s top regulators. The European Commission has begun reviewing whether Apple Maps and Apple Ads should be classified as “gatekeeper services” under the Digital Markets Act (DMA), a designation that would put these products under tougher regulatory obligations. While Apple’s App Store, Safari, and iOS already fall under this category, expanding the list to include Maps and Ads could significantly widen the company’s compliance burden across the EU.
The Commission has 45 days to conclude its assessment, during which officials will evaluate whether the two services meet the DMA’s criteria for market influence and user scale. If confirmed, Apple would need to implement major transparency, data-sharing, and interoperability reforms within six months.
Apple Challenges the Review
Apple, however, says the Commission’s concerns are misplaced. The company insists that neither Apple Maps nor Apple Ads holds the kind of dominance targeted by the DMA.
“Apple Maps has very limited usage in the EU when compared to rival services Google Maps and Waze,” the company said. It also argued that its advertising platform is “smaller than competing services provided by Google, Meta, Microsoft, TikTok, and X”, according to the Reuters report.
Apple’s resistance isn’t surprising. The tech giant has already run afoul of the DMA this year, facing penalties of €500 million (around ₹4,500 crore) over alleged anti-competitive practices involving App Store rules, browser defaults, and restrictions on web distribution. Being forced to open up Maps and Ads would extend the same level of oversight to yet another pair of tightly integrated Apple services.
Why These Services Matter
The DMA focuses on what it calls “core platform services” — digital systems so influential that they act as gateways between consumers and businesses. To be deemed a gatekeeper, a platform must reach at least 45 million monthly active users and 10,000 yearly business users within the EU, along with maintaining a stable market presence.
According to the Commission, Apple’s own reports show that both Apple Maps and Apple Ads surpass these thresholds. That data alone triggered the formal review now underway.
Should the Commission designate them as gatekeepers, Apple would need to ensure deeper interoperability for Maps, more openness in how ads are sold, and greater transparency into pricing and targeting. These rules could force Apple to make structural changes similar to those already ordered for iOS and the App Store.
Google’s Experience Sets the Tone
Apple is not the first major tech player to face this type of scrutiny. Earlier this year, the EU classified Google Maps and Google Ads as gatekeepers after long-running antitrust investigations. Regulators argued that Google leveraged its dominant ad network to reinforce its ecosystem, leaving advertisers with few alternative choices. That decision led to billions in fines and sweeping compliance demands.
Now, investigators are exploring whether Apple’s growing advertising ambitions — especially through App Store search ads and its privacy-centric tracking policies — create similar competitive pressures.
What Comes Next
If the review moves forward, Apple Maps and Apple Ads will need to meet full DMA requirements by mid-2025. That could bring new data-sharing requirements, strict transparency rules, and limits on how Apple cross-promotes its products.
For now, Apple maintains that the EU’s hardline approach risks “penalising innovation rather than promoting competition.” But with regulators increasingly determined to rein in tech giants, Apple’s regulatory battles in Europe are far from over.
