The EU has tailored a law called the Digital Markets Act to take on the rule of big US tech companies, like Microsoft, Apple, Amazon and Google. The only problem with that is that the Big Tech players targeted by the rule claim that it does not apply to them (at least in part).

The legislation imposes new responsibilities on the tech companies, including sharing data, linking to competitors and making their services interoperable with rival apps.

But according to the Financial Times Apple and Microsoft insist that they are not in charge of their markets and are actually "unpopular" so unpopular that the law does not apply to them. 

Microsoft rejects the idea that Bing should be subject to the same obligations placed on its much larger rival, Google Search, although it will admit that its Windows product is a little bit popular and that the law applies to it.

Apple argued that iMessage did not meet the threshold of user numbers at which the rules applied and therefore should not comply with obligations that include opening the service to rival apps such as Meta’s WhatsApp, said the two people.

Analysts have estimated that iMessage, which is built into every iPhone, iPad and Mac, has as many as 1bn users globally, but Apple has not disclosed any figures for several years. The decision is likely to hinge on how Apple and the EU define the market in which iMessage operates.