The European Union initiated investigations on Monday into Alphabet (GOOGL, Financial), Apple (AAPL, Financial), and Meta (FB, Financial) for potentially violating the Digital Markets Act (DMA), aiming to curb Big Tech's dominance and ensure fair competition. The law, targeting companies designated as "gatekeepers" due to their market power, includes Amazon (AMZN, Financial), Microsoft (MSFT, Financial), and TikTok's parent company ByteDance, alongside the investigated firms.
These companies had until March 7 to align with the DMA's regulations, which focus on promoting competition and offering users more choices on tech platforms. Failure to comply could lead to fines up to 10% of the company's global annual revenue. The EU Commission aims to conclude these investigations within a year.
The investigations cover several key areas:
- Anti-Steering Practices: Alphabet and Apple are scrutinized for their in-app payment systems, which take a cut from transactions. The EU is examining whether these companies hinder app developers from directing users to alternative payment methods to avoid fees.
- Self-Preferencing: The probe also looks into whether Google unfairly prioritizes its services, like Google Hotels or Google Flights, over competitors in search results. Although Amazon's practices of favoring its products were noted, an official investigation has not been launched.
Additional concerns include Apple's compliance with DMA requirements for software uninstallation and default setting changes, and Meta's approach to user data consolidation across platforms. The latter's introduction of a "pay or be tracked" policy, offering an ad-free experience at a cost, is under scrutiny for not providing a genuine choice to users.
Google, Apple, and Meta have responded to the investigations, expressing their intentions to defend their practices and efforts to comply with the DMA. Google has already made significant adjustments to its services in anticipation of the DMA's enforcement.
