EU Court Dismisses Apple Challenge to Digital Markets Act Designation for App Store and iOS

The European Union’s General Court on July 8 dismissed Apple’s challenge to key parts of its designation under the Digital Markets Act, leaving the company subject to the bloc’s gatekeeper rules for the App Store and iOS.

The judgment, in joined cases T-1079/23, T-1080/23 and T-214/24, upholds core parts of a European Commission decision from Sept. 5, 2023, which designated Apple as a gatekeeper for the App Store, iOS and Safari under the EU law aimed at the largest digital platforms. In a press release, the court said: “The General Court dismisses Apple’s actions regarding its designation as a gatekeeper in relation to the App Store and iOS.”

The ruling matters because it preserves the legal foundation for EU rules meant to open parts of Apple’s mobile ecosystem to more competition in app distribution and to greater interoperability with device features. It does not, however, by itself require any new product changes. Instead, it confirms that Apple remains within the DMA framework the Commission is already using to press for more openness.

The court rejected several arguments Apple had made against its designation.

First, Apple had argued that Article 6(7) of the DMA was unlawful and that its designation should therefore be annulled. That provision requires gatekeepers that provide an operating system or virtual assistant to allow third parties effective interoperability with the same hardware and software features they use themselves. The court found Apple could not use that provision to undo the designation because Article 6(7) was not the legal basis for the Commission’s designation decision and was not directly enough connected to it for that purpose.

Second, the court rejected Apple’s argument that its app stores across different devices should not be treated as a single “core platform service” under the law. The judges said the stores perform the same essential function: intermediating between developers and other business users, on one side, and end users, on the other, for the distribution of apps and in-app content.

Third, the court held Apple’s challenges concerning iMessage inadmissible. The reason was procedural. Although the Commission had discussed iMessage, it did not list the messaging service as an “important gateway” in the operative part of the designation decision, so that classification did not in itself impose DMA obligations on Apple.

Apple said after the ruling that it still objects to the law’s reach. According to Reuters, an Apple spokesperson said: “We firmly believe the DMA’s mandate goes beyond what is lawful and proportionate, threatening to erode decades of privacy and security protections we’ve built and leaving our users vulnerable to new risks. We will continue advocating for the innovation and privacy our European customers deserve.”

Apple can still appeal to the Court of Justice of the European Union, the bloc’s top court, but only on points of law and generally within two months and 10 days of notification.

The DMA, adopted in 2022, is the EU’s ex-ante competition law for large digital platforms designated as gatekeepers, meaning services the bloc considers key gateways for businesses to reach users. In this case, the main issue was not every detail of how interoperability must work in practice, but whether Apple could escape the gatekeeper obligations altogether.

Those implementation fights are continuing elsewhere. The Commission adopted specification decisions on March 19, 2025, to clarify how Apple must comply with Article 6(7), and Apple has filed separate appeals over those measures that are still pending. The Commission has also already shown it is willing to enforce the law beyond designation decisions, including a 500 million euro fine against Apple on April 23, 2025, in a separate anti-steering case.

For now, the practical result is narrower but important: Apple’s gatekeeper status for the App Store and iOS remains intact, and the wider DMA enforcement campaign against the company continues.