EU regulators are cracking down on large tech giants

European regulators have launched a series of investigations into Big Tech. In the latest moves, the EU antitrust watchdog accused Meta and Apple of violating the Digital Markets Act (DMA) and Microsoft of illegally bundling its Office and Teams products.

Violations of the DMA can result in fines of as much as 10% of a company’s worldwide annual turnover. Here are some of the actions taken by European regulators against big tech companies:

EUROPEAN UNION The European Commission (EC), the EU’s competition law enforcer, accused Meta on July 1 of failing to comply with the DMA in its new paid or opt-in advertising model.

The European Commission said binary selection forces users to consent to the combination of their personal data and does not provide them with a less personalized but equivalent version of Meta’s social networks. In May, Meta added security features to its CrowdTangle disinformation tracker for use during the June European Parliament elections, in an attempt to allay EU concerns that sparked an investigation in April into the impact of Meta’s decision to withdraw the tool.

Facebook and Instagram are also being investigated for potential breaches of EU online content rules on child safety, which could result in stiff penalties, it said on May 16. The European Commission said on June 24 that Apple’s App Store rules violate the DMA by preventing app developers from targeting consumers to alternative offers.

The journalist said he was launching a new investigation into Apple over new contractual requirements for third-party app developers and app stores. On March 4, Brussels fined Apple 1.84 billion euros ($1.97 billion), the first-ever EU antitrust fine, following a complaint filed by Spotify in 2019. Apple announced that it would appeal this decision in court.

On June 25, European Union antitrust regulators accused Microsoft of illegally bundling its Teams chat and video app with its Office product and said more needed to be done to separate the bundle. The investigation was sparked by a complaint in 2020 from rival messaging app Slack, owned by Salesforce.

Microsoft said it would work to find solutions to address regulators’ concerns. The EC is also investigating whether Microsoft prevents customers from using certain security software provided by rivals, according to a document regulators sent to at least one rival in January, seen by Reuters.

EU antitrust regulators also said Microsoft’s investment of more than $10 billion in ChatGPT maker OpenAI could be subject to EU merger rules. ​​OpenAI’s efforts to produce less false output from its ChatGPT chatbot will not be enough to ensure full compliance with EU data rules, a task force at the bloc’s privacy watchdog said in May.

Alphabet’s Google is also being investigated for possible DMA violations, the EC said in March. An adviser to Europe’s highest court said on January 11 that the court should uphold the EU’s 2.42 billion euro ($2.60 billion) antitrust fine against Google. The European Commission fined the company in 2017 for using its own price comparison service to gain an unfair advantage over smaller European rivals.

In September 2023, the EU designated 22 so-called gatekeeper services operated by Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft and TikTok owner ByteDance, giving them six months to comply with DMA rules designed to make it easier for European users to move between competing services. In April, regulators designated Apple’s iPad operating system as a gatekeeper under the DMA.

Meta and TikTok appealed their gatekeeper status in November, and the latter lost an attempt to suspend its designation in February. Apple said in April that it would continue to work with EC to comply with the rules. GREAT BRITAIN

In October, the UK media regulator asked the Competition and Markets Authority to investigate Amazon and Microsoft’s dominance of the UK cloud services market. The CMA is expected to complete its investigation by April 2025. FRANCE

France’s competition watchdog said in March it had fined Google 250 million euros ($268 million) for violating EU intellectual property rules in its dealings with media publishers. GERMANY

Google has agreed to change its user data practices to end a German antitrust investigation that sought to limit its data-based market power, the German cartel office said in October. Google’s commitments will give users more choice in how their data is used across platforms. ITALY

Italy’s antitrust watchdog said on June 5 it had fined Facebook and Meta 3.5 million euros ($3.75 million) for what it described as unfair trade practices. Last year, the agency opened an investigation into Apple for allegedly abusing its dominant position in the app market and took action against Meta for allegedly abusing its position in the country in an investigation into the rights to music published on its platforms.

NETHERLANDS The Dutch privacy watchdog recommended in April that government organisations stop using Facebook until it is clear what happens to the personal data of users of government Facebook pages.

The country’s competition authority last year rejected Apple’s challenge to €50 million ($53.6 million) in fines for failing to comply with rules designed to curb the App Store’s dominant position. Apple will appeal the decision in Dutch courts. SPAIN

Spain’s data protection authority in May temporarily suspended two planned Meta products that were to be rolled out for the EU elections on Instagram and Facebook. A group representing more than 700 startups in Spain filed a complaint about Microsoft’s cloud practices with the country’s antitrust regulator in May, citing several allegedly anti-competitive practices in recent years.

($1 = 0.9323 euro) (Collected by Alessandro Parodi, Victor Goury-Laffont, Olivier Cherfan, Paolo Laudani and Enrico Sciacovelli in Gdańsk; edited by Milla Nissi)

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a feed.)