Apple and Google have spent years building walled gardens — closed ecosystems that keep users locked into their services. Now, the European Union’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) is tearing down those walls, forcing some of the most powerful tech companies to open up their platforms in ways that could reshape the industry.
At the heart of the legislation is a battle over control. For decades, Apple has tightly managed its iOS ecosystem, restricting third-party access to its messaging, payments, and hardware integrations. Google, meanwhile, has faced persistent accusations of favouring its own services in search results and leveraging its Android operating system to entrench dominance. The DMA forces these companies to unbundle their services, ensuring fair competition by compelling them to allow competitors to integrate more freely.
The end of walled gardens?
Nowhere is the impact of the DMA more evident than in Apple’s resistance to opening iMessage and its hardware integrations to competitors. Under the new law, Apple must ensure that messaging services from rivals, such as Meta’s WhatsApp or Signal, can seamlessly interact with iMessage. It also mandates that third-party developers gain greater access to Apple’s NFC technology, which could challenge Apple Pay’s near-monopoly over iPhone payments. The EU has issued binding decisions requiring Apple to comply, marking one of the most significant regulatory interventions in the company’s history.
For Google, the DMA strikes at the heart of its search dominance. The European Commission has long accused the company of using its search engine to prioritise its own products — Google Shopping, Google Flights, and Google Hotels — over competitors. With the new law in place, Google is now under pressure to adjust its algorithms, ensuring rival services have equal visibility. If it fails to comply, the penalties are severe: fines of up to 10% of global revenue, rising to 20% for repeated violations.
How this changes Apple’s and Google’s business models
For Apple, the DMA poses a fundamental challenge to its ecosystem-driven business model. The company has long used the seamless integration between hardware, software, and services as a key selling point. By forcing interoperability, the DMA threatens to weaken the exclusivity that has helped drive iPhone sales and services revenue. Apple may still comply in a way that preserves its control — offering limited API access while maintaining core advantages — but the company will be forced to make compromises it has historically resisted.
Google, on the other hand, faces disruption to its search and advertising business, which depends on controlling how users interact with online information. The requirement to give equal prominence to rival services could erode Google’s dominance in search-driven commerce, affecting everything from shopping links to travel bookings. Additionally, changes to how Android handles default apps and sideloading could weaken Google’s grip on mobile services, making it easier for alternative app stores to gain traction.
A high-stakes power struggle
The broader question is whether the DMA is truly about promoting competition — or if it represents the EU’s bid to assert its regulatory authority over Silicon Valley. European policymakers have long struggled to nurture homegrown tech champions capable of rivalling U.S. and Chinese firms. The DMA, while framed as a consumer-protection measure, also serves as a geopolitical tool — one that shifts leverage away from American corporations and toward European regulators and businesses.
Big Tech, unsurprisingly, is not sitting idle. Apple and Google have responded with calculated concessions that comply with the letter of the law while preserving their underlying business models. Apple, for instance, has introduced new APIs for third-party messaging apps but retains significant control over how they integrate with iMessage. Google has made algorithmic adjustments but still structures search results in ways that favour its ecosystem.
In a statement shared with TechRadar, Apple said: “Today’s decisions wrap us in red tape, slowing down Apple’s ability to innovate for users in Europe and forcing us to give away our new features for free to companies who don’t have to play by the same rules. It’s bad for our products and for our European users. We will continue to work with the European Commission to help them understand our concerns on behalf of our users.”
These tactics raise the question: Can regulation keep pace with corporate adaptability, or will the DMA merely reshape, rather than dismantle, existing monopolistic practices?
The global ripple effect
The DMA doesn’t operate in isolation. It is part of a broader wave of regulatory scrutiny facing Big Tech across the globe. In the U.S., the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Department of Justice have launched antitrust lawsuits against Google and Amazon, but political gridlock has slowed legislative progress. In China, regulators have cracked down on domestic tech giants like Alibaba and Tencent, though with motives that lean more toward state control than market fairness.
The impact of the DMA could extend far beyond Europe. If successful, it may inspire similar regulatory frameworks in other regions, particularly in emerging markets where digital monopolies have entrenched themselves. Countries in Africa and South America, which often rely on Big Tech’s infrastructure, may look to the EU model as a blueprint for their own regulatory frameworks.
Unintended consequences and the road ahead
The DMA is designed to promote competition, but it may also introduce new challenges. Forcing interoperability could create security vulnerabilities, particularly in encrypted messaging services. Developers and smaller companies may struggle with compliance costs, and consumers could experience disruptions as platforms adjust to new regulations. Meanwhile, Apple and Google are likely to explore new strategies to maintain their dominance within the new legal framework.
What happens next depends on enforcement. If regulators remain aggressive and willing to challenge superficial compliance, the DMA could genuinely reshape the digital economy. If Big Tech’s workarounds go unchallenged, however, the law may end up as just another bureaucratic measure with limited real-world impact. The battle for control over the digital marketplace is far from over — this is just the latest round in a long fight between regulators and the world’s most powerful tech companies.