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EU Commissioner Margrethe Vestager: Fight against the market power of digital companies
Photo: Yves Herman / REUTERS
The EU Commission has opened competition proceedings against Google parent Alphabet, iPhone manufacturer Apple and Facebook parent company Meta. There are therefore doubts as to whether the companies are adhering to the requirements of the new law for digital markets, as the commission announced on Monday. With the so-called Digital Markets Act (DMA), the EU wants to limit the market power of digital companies; if they violate it, they face fines running into the billions.
Even before the law came into force at the beginning of March, the companies implemented changes and announced further adjustments. “We suspect that the solutions proposed by the three companies do not fully comply with the DMA,” explained EU Commissioner Margrethe Vestager. The Commission has been in discussions with companies “for months” to help them implement the DMA, added its colleague Thierry Breton.
First changes already made
In the past few weeks, providers have already adapted their platforms to the new legal situation: in some cases they changed the user interface of their services, in other cases users were also given the option of maintaining the previous functionality by agreeing. Google, for example, now saves the movement history directly on the users' devices instead of storing it preset on Google servers.
The competition watchdogs are now investigating, for example, whether Alphabet is still giving its own services such as Google Maps or Google Shopping an inadmissible competitive advantage in the results list of the Google search engine, despite initial measures. In the case of Apple, the Commission raised concerns because iPhone users sometimes cannot delete pre-installed apps and cannot change some default settings on their cell phones.
Alphabet and Apple are also accused of indirectly forcing app developers to use their in-house app stores. On Android phones it's the Google Play Store, on iPhones it's Apple's App Store. According to the allegations, the companies prevent other providers from providing information about prices or offering contracts without using the respective app store.
Pay for privacy
The investigation into the Meta Group is about a much-criticized payment model for the Facebook and Instagram platforms: users can pay a monthly fee of at least 9.99 euros if they no longer want to see advertising. Only those who accept personalized ads can continue to use the platforms for free. The EU Commission suspects that users are indirectly forced to pass on their data.
With the DMA, the EU wants to limit the market power of so-called gatekeepers of the Internet. The stricter rules have been in effect since the beginning of March for Google parent Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, TikTok parent ByteDance, Meta and Microsoft. If the commission finds violations of the new law in its investigations, the companies face penalties of up to ten percent of their global annual turnover.
tmk/AFP