EU seeks info on Bing, iMessage to determine if they're 'gatekeepers'
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The European Commission is seeking information as to whether a group of Microsoft's (NASDAQ:MSFT) services and Apple's (NASDAQ:AAPL) iMessage messaging system should comply with the continent's Digital Markets Act.
Antitrust regulators are speaking to users of the services - which include iMessage, Bing, Edge and Microsoft advertising - and competitors on the matter and whether they should comply, Reuters reported, citing people familiar with the matter.
Questionnaires were sent out earlier this month to rate the importance of the services compared to competitors, while also asking how they fit into their respective ecosystems, the news outlet added.
Respondents were given less than a week to respond.
Apple and Microsoft did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Seeking Alpha.
Last month, the European Commission announced its first list of "gatekeepers," a group of six tech companies that are subject to the continent's Digital Markets Act.
Alphabet (GOOG) (GOOGL), Amazon (AMZN), Apple (AAPL), Meta Platforms (META), Microsoft (MSFT) and TikTok parent Chinese tech giant ByteDance (BDNCE) are on the list, which is comprised of 22 services owned and operated by the six tech conglomerates.
Products and services such as TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Apple's App Store and the Windows PC operating system were included on the initial list of 22. 
But at the time, the EC said it had opened four investigations to determine whether Apple's (AAPL) iMessage and Microsoft's (MSFT) Bing, Edge and advertising should not be qualified as gatekeepers, despite meeting the thresholds, which include 45M or more active local users, more than â¬7.5B in annual revenue or a market cap that surpasses â¬75B.
Apple (AAPL) and Microsoft (MSFT) had argued that the four respective services should not qualify as gatekeepers.
If the companies do not comply with the rules laid down by the DMA, they can be fined up to 10% of global annual turnover or 20% for repeated violations, the EC explained.
Additional steps can be taken by the EC, including requiring a gatekeeper to sell a business or parts of it or banning the respective gatekeeper from acquiring additional services related to the non-compliance.

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