The big tech giants are being investigated for not complying with the Digital Markets Act
The European Union (EU) has decided to look into the practices of three big tech firms over concerns about anti-competitive practices.
Apple, Google’s parent company Alphabet, and Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, are each being are each being investigated over non-compliance with the European Union’s Digital Markets Act (DMA). The DMA was brought in last year to give consumers more options and stop enormous tech platforms from maintaing monopolies across different areas of the market.
If a company is caught breaking these rules, it could get fined up to 10% of their annual turnover, a figure that could run into billions of dollars for the biggest companies. When they announced these checks, the European Commission said they were looking at Apple and Google because of their “steering rules” at their app stores.
They wanted to know if the companies did enough to send people to offers outside their own stores without charging them anything. Under the DMA, that is something they have to do.
They wanted to see if Alphabet focused too much on its own services when showing search results. And they were unsure if Apple made it simple for people to switch to software or services not owned by Apple like internet browsers on Apple devices.
Facebook parent firm Meta, meanwhile, is under scrutiny over its scheme which asks people to pay to avoid their data being used for adverts. The Commission said it expects its investigation to take around a year to complete.
Margrethe Vestager, the EU’s competition policy chief, said: “Today, the Commission opens five non-compliance investigations under the Digital Markets Act (DMA). They concern Alphabet’s rules on steering in Google Play and self-preferencing in Google Search, Apple’s rules on steering in the App Store and on choosing browsers and changing defaults, and Meta’s ‘pay or consent model’.”
“We suspect that the suggested solutions put forward by the three companies do not fully comply with the DMA. We will now investigate the companies’ compliance with the DMA, to ensure open and contestable digital markets in Europe.”
Thierry Breton, The EU’s commissioner for the internal market said: “The Digital Markets Act became applicable on March 7. We have been in discussions with gatekeepers for months to help them adapt, and we can already see changes happening on the market.”
“But we are not convinced that the solutions by Alphabet, Apple and Meta respect their obligations for a fairer and more open digital space for European citizens and businesses. Should our investigation conclude that there is lack of full compliance with the DMA, gatekeepers could face heavy fines.”
