Email company Tuta must not become a default app at Apple, complains to EU

The Digital Markets Act (DMA) of the European Union makes it possible: Apple has allowed third-party providers since last year to become a standard app on the iPhone in various categories. The problem: Sometimes it doesn’t work because the company does not report. So now it was the company Tutao GmbH from Hanover, that with Tuta Mail and Tuta Calendar Alternative email and calendar apps offer. As Tutao reports in his blog, one tried over a total of for two and a half monthsto receive an answer from Apple – including public request by X. “To today, April 3, 2025, we have not even received a single answer from Apple – not even confirmation that you received our inquiries,” the company wrote on Thursday.

Three emails and two posts

So that apps on the iPhone can become default, it is not enough to offer them in the App Store. They must also be integrated into Apple’s selection dialog, which can be found in the system settings. Finally, this was made possible for WhatsApp with telephony and text messages. However, Apple does not move, a provider cannot do anything – except trying to reach the group. At Tutao, this amounted to a total of three emails (January 14th, 4.3., March 31) and two X-posts, which did not fruit.

“Our users have the right to choose any e-mail provider as a standard mail app on iOS, including our! Apple refusal to deal with this matter, and his inactivity make our users the full change to Tuta Mail-which is the opposite of fair competition,” said Tutao on Thursday. The company finally decided to file a complaint to the EU Commission on the basis of the DMA.

Apple then reacts

However, in this case the matter had a happy ending. After Tutao also sent out a press release this week, a journalist Apple contacted. There you actually took the matter and went “within a few hours” in Tutao.

The company then decided to withdraw the complaint with the EU. It is now hoped that Tuta Mail can soon be offered as a standard mail app on iOS. According to Tutoa, the company has had problems with other US Big-Techs in recent years. Tuta Mail was downgraded into Google searches and emails with a Tuta domain by Outlook were classified as spam for several weeks. The company also claims to have been blocked by providers in the USA and Great Britain. Every time you had to make the problem public before it was solved. “It is worrying to see how Big Tech treats and hinders other smaller companies.”