The EU Announces Investigations into Apple, Meta, and Google
EU Launches Investigations into Tech Giants Over Uncompetitive Practices
As reported by the BBC
Overview
The EU has announced investigations into some of the biggest tech firms in the world over uncompetitive practices. Meta, Apple, and Alphabet, which owns Google, are being looked into for potential breaches of the Digital Markets Act (DMA) introduced in 2022.
Investigations Announcement
EU antitrust boss Margrethe Vestager and industry head Thierry Breton announced the investigations on Monday. Just six companies have obligations under the DMA, but they are also the world’s largest tech firms: Alphabet, Apple, Meta, Amazon, Microsoft and ByteDance.
Recent Events
It comes three weeks after the EU fined Apple €1.8bn (£1.5bn) for breaking competition laws over music streaming. Meanwhile, the United States accused Apple of monopolising the smartphone market in a landmark lawsuit against the tech giant introduced last week.
Statements from Companies
An Apple spokesperson says the company will constructively engage with the investigation and that they’re confident that their plan complies with the Digital Markets Act. Meanwhile, a Meta spokesperson said the firm’s use of subscriptions as an alternative to advertising were “a well-established business model across many industries”.
Investigative Areas
The EU said it will investigate five different possible acts of non-compliance:
- Whether Apple and Alphabet are not allowing apps to freely communicate with users and make contracts with them
- Whether Apple is not giving users enough choice
- Whether Meta is unfairly asking people to pay to avoid their data being used for adverts
- Whether Google preferences the firm’s own goods and services in search results
Duration of Investigations
According to Ms Vestager, the investigation will take around 12 months to complete – though Mr Breton later clarified it could take slightly longer. “We suspect that the suggested solutions put forward by the three companies do not fully comply with the DMA,” she said.
Implications
The five cases are consumer-focused, and highly relatable to most people who use products from these companies, which is collectively billions of people worldwide. “We’re talking about the protection of our citizens, we can’t just sit around and wait,” said Thierry Breton, of the EU’s decision to act straight away.
Dr Rupprecht Podszun, director of the Institute for Competition Law at Heinrich Heine University in Dusseldorf, called it “a strong signal” from the EU. “The DMA is designed for quick results,” he said. “The cases that the Commission has selected go to the heart of the business models; these are not marginal issues for the gatekeepers.”