By The investigations should take a maximum of five months. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
Apple and Microsoft have managed to temporarily prevent iMessage and Bing from being targeted by the EU’s strict new Digital Markets Act. Instead, the European Commission announced on Wednesday that it’s opened four market investigations into Bing, Edge, Microsoft Advertising, and iMessage, to determine whether they should be designated as ”core platform services” under the DMA.
The DMA — one of several new EU laws designed to restrict the power of tech companies and help create a level playing field — creates a host of new obligations for large tech companies. Messaging services like iMessage are required to offer other companies some level of interoperability if they’re deemed to be big and important enough. Bing would be obligated to…