"It is interesting to consider whether the current
structure of the messaging market is actually creating harm for
consumers. Services such as WhatsApp and iMessage provide end users
with free, easy, secure and feature-rich communications."
The European Commission (EC) recently announced a provisional
political agreement on the Digital Markets Act
(DMA).1 The act is expected to mandate
interoperability between the online messaging services of large
firms (known as 'gatekeepers').
Messaging is important in today's world: it has become a
huge part of our everyday lives. For example, parents worldwide
benefit from the collective insight of other parents via such
messaging to know if their child needs a sports kit/costume/prop on
a particular day. However, the devil is in the detail when
requiring interoperability between messaging services, and the
current (fragmented, non-interoperable) market for messaging may
not be such a bad thing.
