With the European Union's Digital Markets Act (DMA) now in effect, platform giants designated as "gatekeepers" like Apple and Google appear to already be giving up some of the benefits they had long enjoyed by leveraging their overwhelming influence. According to a Reuters report, the mandated changes making it easy to switch a device's default web browser within the EU have revealed a rise in popularity for smaller web browsers.

While it was previously possible to change the default web browser on Android and iOS, the process for doing so was (intentionally) complicated and confusing, which helped tech giants provide their own browsing services free of charge to the vast majority of users while also collecting data used for ad targeting. Concerned about this, the EU mandated changes that would make it easy for users to switch their default settings to web browsers offering a better or more private browsing experience.

Reuters collected data from six companies and confirmed that many EU users, when presented with a choice screen, switched from OS default browsers like Google's Chrome or Apple's Safari to more privacy-focused options. Because iPhone's market share is particularly high in the EU, the shift away from Safari has been especially pronounced, making "Apple the biggest loser," and Reuters points out that under the DMA, "the growth of small browsers is now coming at Safari's expense."

Some indie browsers have benefited more than others from users abandoning Safari. As one example, Cyprus-based Aloha Browser, which touts "complete privacy" for web browsing, told Reuters that its total EU user base surged 250% in March alone, within the first month after the DMA took effect on March 7.

Apple is currently under investigation in the EU for possible DMA violations. The European Commission has expressed concern that because Apple isn't presenting users with all the available options on the choice screen, it is "depriving end users of the ability to make an informed decision" about whether to switch from Safari as their default web browser.

Reuters reported that, for example, popular alternative browsers like DuckDuckGo and Opera appear on Apple's choice screen list in all 27 member states. However, Aloha is listed in only 26 countries, Ecosia in 13, and Vivaldi in just 8.

The EU's investigation began after last month's public workshop hosted by a group of software engineers called Open Web Advocacy (OWA), which aims to prevent monopolies in browser technology and promote technological progress, accused Apple of using "dark patterns" to prevent iOS users from changing their default browser.

OWA accused Apple of "maliciously" intending to "undermine user choice" through what it called a "remarkably brazen dark pattern," in which "Apple's engineers added code to the Safari settings page to hide the option to change the default browser when Safari is the default, while making it prominent when another browser is the default."

The EU is expected to share preliminary findings on Apple's DMA compliance within three months of launching its investigation. OWA is urging the European Commission (EC) to push Apple to take further steps to make it easier to switch away from Safari as the default browser, with perhaps the most urgent being the removal of "the malicious dark pattern of hiding the option to switch default browsers when Safari is the default."

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