Brussels marks ground against big technology companies. Barely two weeks after the full entry into force of the Digital Markets Law, the European Commission today announced the opening of different investigations into Apple, Alphabet (Google), Amazon and Meta (Facebook, Instagram) for their alleged breaches of obligations. that the new community legal framework imposes on large operators, called ‘gatekeepers of access’ to the network. The alleged violations have to do with the way in which these companies request the consent of their users for different decisions, the rules that apply to third-party operators in the app stores or the treatment of the products themselves on the buying and selling platforms.
“I don’t think we are rushing, it seems to me that it comes at the right time and that it reflects the promises that have been made, the law that has been approved and the preparations for its entry into force on March 7,” defended the vice president of the community executive and head of the Competition portfolio, Margrethe Vestager. “These are serious and emblematic cases regarding the ability to choose that the Digital Markets Law offers consumers,” she stressed. “The Law has not caught anyone by surprise,” added the European Commissioner for the Internal Market, Thierry Breton, who recalled the long preparations and contacts maintained with the affected companies before the entry into force of the new regulatory framework. “We can already see some changes in the market” but “we are not convinced that the proposed solutions respect their obligations.”
The new Digital Markets Law, known as DMA in the sector for its acronym in English, the European Union has provided itself with a potentially more effective instrument than the application of traditional rules to address possible cases of dominant position in the technology sector and protect competition. The new regulation provides for fines of up to 20% of the global business volume of companies in the event of serious and repeated non-compliance, compared to the current 10%, and aims to address cases with more agility than until now, when they could extend for several years. Investigations can last up to 12 months.
In the case of Alphabet, Brussels suspects that the company uses its quasi-monopoly in the search engine sector with Google to favor its own price comparison services to the detriment of those offered by rival companies in sectors such as hotel reservations or tickets. of plane, an action that already earned him a fine of 2.4 billion euros in 2017 and that, according to the community competition services, has not been satisfactorily remedied.
In addition, the European Commission considers that the restrictions that both Alphabet and Apple apply to developers in their respective app stores (Google Play and App Store), since they “limit” their ability to communicate directly with their users and propose subscription offers , a practice that has just earned the manufacturer of iPhone phones a fine of 1.8 billion euros. Community technicians are also not satisfied with the formula chosen by Apple to comply with its new obligation to offer its users to decide which apps appear by default in the iOS system since its last update. “The design of the choice screen prevents consumers from truly using their choice” and opting for alternatives to Safari, says the institution.
In the case of Meta, the investigation refers to the alleged non-compliance with the rule that requires them to request the consent of users to be able to use their personal data in order to select the type of advertising to which they are exposed when they use Facebook or Instagram. Meta has chosen to offer the only alternative to the full use of its data the payment of a subscription, a “binary” option in the sense of “pay or consent” that does not convince the EC. Regarding Amazon, Brussels suspects that the platform favors its own products and brands over those offered by rival companies. The Commission has ordered affected companies to retain any documentation that may be useful in determining whether they are complying with the law. The Commission has asked the four affected companies, in addition to Apple, as well as Microsoft, also considered a ‘gatekeeper’, as well as ByteDance, owner of TikTok, to keep documentation that could be useful to find out if they are complying with the law.
