EU launches Digital Markets Act probes into Apple, Google and Meta

The European Union has launched investigations into Apple, Meta and Google claiming that they are in breach of the EU Digital Markets Act, introduced in 2022.

EU antitrust boss Margrethe Vestager and industry head Thierry Breton announced the investigations, accusing the firms of uncompetitive pricing, just two weeks after they submitted compliance reports required by the DMA.

Although based in the US, Alphabet (which owns Google), Apple and Meta have all been named as firms that have obligations under the European regulations.

The DMA sets obligations for these digital ‘gatekeepers’ to ensure fair competition, including not favouring their own services, sharing data with third parties, and obtaining consent for tracking user data.

Apple, Google and Meta could face significant fines if found in breach of the DMA, which aims to increase online choice for customers.

Non-compliance can result in fines of up to 10% of turnover, rising to 20% of repeated infringements – with Apple posting $383bn of revenue last year, Alphabet recording $307bn and revenues of $134bn at Meta.

The investigations will look at several alleged breaches. Investigators will seek to assess Apple and Google’s measures allowing app developers to “steer” users to offers outside their app stores; whether Alphabet, Google’s owner, favours its own services in search results on its search engine; and if Meta’s decision to charge users for an ad-free experience on Facebook and Instagram complies with DMA provisions on users’ personal data.

“The commission suspects that the measures put in place by these gatekeepers fall short of effective compliance of their obligations under the DMA,” it said in a statement.

Vestager claimed companies had been given plenty of time to comply with the act, telling reports: “I definitely do not think this is rushed.”

Big Tech investigations

It is the latest move by regulators to tackle the dominance of big tech and comes just three weeks after the EU fined Apple €1.8 billion for breaking competition laws over its music streaming services.

The US also announced last week’s plans to investigate the iPhone maker over claims it was monopolising the smartphone market.

An Apple spokesperson told the BBC it would constructively engage with the EU Digital Markets Act investigation but was confident that no breach had occurred. Meanwhile,  a statement from Meta defended its business model.

‘Subscriptions as an alternative to advertising are a well-established business model across many industries, and we designed Subscription for No Ads to address several overlapping regulatory obligations, including the DMA. We will continue to engage constructively with the Commission,’  a statement released by Apple said.

Techcrunch posted a response from a spokesperson at Google, attributed to Oliver Bethell, director, competition. It said:

“To comply with the Digital Markets Act, we have made significant changes to the way our services operate in Europe. We have engaged with the European Commission, stakeholders and third parties in dozens of events over the past year to receive and respond to feedback, and to balance conflicting needs within the ecosystem. We will continue to defend our approach in the coming months.”

The EU now has 12 months to investigate its claims, according to pre-agreed timeframes set out in the DMA.