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EU Spares Apple Maps and Apple Ads

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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.

Apple-Maps-Icon.jpg

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.

Note: Due to the political or social nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Political News forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Article Link: EU Spares Apple Maps and Apple Ads
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2026/02/05/eu-spares-apple-ads-and-apple-maps/
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The EU is rules-driven. This decision is not "sparing Apple Maps" as stated in the headline, it is just an application of the rules. End of discussion.

Some people like to endlessly criticise the EU, but really everything is rather straightforward ... follow the rules.
 
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Reactions: EpleSmeple43, CarlJ, Hammerd and 36 others
It also looks like France and Spain are setting their targets at Musk's far right, porn filled, publishing empire known as X.

Free speech is all well and good, but if you’re controlling the narrative with algorithms, you could be thought of as a publisher not a server.

I wonder if the EU will take this on. Interesting times
 
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Zenman12 said:
I like the EU when it comes to Apple. Giving them the good ol’ beatdown. They’re the reason for usb-c cables. I have no idea what you’re talking about.
Click to expand...
Hey. Fun fact, Steve said Lightning was the Apple phone cable for the next decade. Guess what, Apple put USB type C in their phones at the end of that decade.

I am not saying the EU didn’t do good in making USB type C the standard. The USB protocol is a mess though and not every Type-C cable is the same and nothing was ever done about fixing the labeling until recently when the USB standards board finally updated their requirements.
 
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Apple breathing sigh of relief. Tim was going to present Ursula with a 24 karat gold plaque but then learned that there are 3 EU presidents (council, commission, parliament). “Investment” no longer necessary, App Tracking Transparency is safe.
 
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The_Gream said:
Hey. Fun fact, Steve said Lightning was the Apple phone cable for the next decade. Guess what, Apple put USB type C in their phones at the end of that decade.

I am not saying the EU didn’t do good in making USB type C the standard. The USB protocol is a mess though and not every Type-C cable is the same and nothing was ever done about fixing the labeling until recently when the USB standards board finally updated their requirements.
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I don’t recall that. Just them refusing until the EU put their foot down. It’s not the end of the decade either. USB c started in 2023 for 15.
 
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ForkHandles said:
It also looks like France and Spain are seeing their targets a musk far right, porn filled, publishing empire known as X.

Free speech is all well and good, but if you’re controlling the narrative with algorithms, you could be thought of as a publisher not a server.

I wonder if the EU will take this on. Interesting times
Click to expand...
X, TikTok, et. al. should all have the same restrictions as printed and electronic news media publishers anyway.
 
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Zenman12 said:
I don’t recall that. Just them refusing until the EU put their foot down. It’s not the end of the decade either. USB c started in 2023 for 15.
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Gah. Lighting lasted a decade, from the time Lighting was originally introduced to when Apple stopped using it on their phones.
Also, USB type C is not a EU product, it’s American

en.wikipedia.org

USB-C - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org


Lighting came out two years prior to USB-C. I am pretty sure the Apple engineers who made Lighting also worked on USB-C

So Apple used Lighting on their Phones from 2012 to 2022. They moved to USB-C in 2023. That’s ten years or a decade.
 
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