The EU Commission is opening proceedings against Apple, Google parent Alphabet and Facebook’s parent company Meta. The Commission announced that it should be examined whether the companies have violated EU rules.
The platforms would have to obtain users’ consent if they wanted to combine their personal data across different central platform services. The Commission is concerned that Meta is not sufficiently complying with this. In addition, the online giants must enable app developers to direct consumers to offers outside of their own app stores – and do so for free. The Brussels authority has doubts as to whether Alphabet and Apple are fully complying with this. They are accused of restricting developers’ options by imposing various fees on them.
The Commission also wants to check whether users of Apple devices have the opportunity to easily change their default settings and, for example, use a different browser or search engine.
Since the beginning of March, companies have had to comply with the Digital Markets Act (DMA). It is intended to create more competition in digital services and better opportunities for new rivals. The basic assumption is that some large platform operators have become so powerful that they can cement their market position. The DMA should break this with rules for the so-called gatekeepers. The commission has so far identified 22 gatekeeper services from six companies. These include the US heavyweights Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, Alphabet and Meta.
The commission wants to complete the procedure opened this Monday within a year. Depending on the results of the investigation, the companies affected must take measures to address the authority’s concerns. Anyone who does not comply with the law can be punished with a fine of up to ten percent of their total worldwide turnover. For repeat offenders, 20 percent is possible.