The European Commission announced on Monday that it had launched a number of investigations into a possible breach of competition rules by Apple, Alphabet (Google) and Meta (community networks Facebook and Instagram), reported the EC in a press release.
Possible infringements are recorded in connection with the provisions of the fresh Digital Markets Act (DMA). The European Commission should present the results of the investigation within 12 months.
"We were incapable to guarantee that Apple, Alphabet and Meta met their obligations," said Thierry Breton, EU Commissioner for the interior Market.
In particular, the EU suspects that Google's service abuses its almost monopolistic position to give precedence to its own hotel search services, airline tickets, the sale of another services and goods in the search engine.
With respect to the Facebook platform, it allows users to opt out of sharing their own data for advertising purposes only for a fee. Those who do not want to control to paid subscription, but want to keep the service, are actually forced to supply their data.
Lega artis AppThe Digital Markets Act (DMA) entered into force on 1 November 2022 and became applicable in the EU as of May 2023. According to its authors, this law aims to "make digital markets more equitable and competitive" and to supply greater choice and freedom for end users. For example, it obliges companies to let another companies to install applications and let users to easy change settings. The EU stressed that DMA was 1 of the first tools to effectively regulate the operations of large digital companies. Its aim is to complement but not amend EU competition rules.
The European Commission then identified six companies – Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, ByteDance, Meta, Microsoft – giving them six months to guarantee full compliance with their DMA obligations. These measures concern social networks in particular: Tiktok, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Whatsapp, Messenger, Youtube video hosting, Chrome, Safari, Google Search, Google Android operating systems, iOS, Windows PC OS, acquisition sites and App store app, Google Shopping, Google Maps, Google Play and more.
The European Commission has warned that it will monitor the effective fulfilment of DMA obligations by digital companies in question. If the company fails to comply with the obligations set out in the DMA, the Commission may impose fines of up to 10% of the full global turnover of the company for the erstwhile financial year and up to 20% of specified turnover in the case of repeated infringements.
In the case of systematic infringements, the EC will take additional remedies, including a decision requiring the company to sale its activities in the EU.
We have previously informed that the DMA Act imposes a number of obligations on large online platforms "which have a dominant marketplace position that makes it hard not to usage them". specified companies must, in accordance with EU law, in peculiar let business users to access the data they make on the platform, let them to advance their own offers and conclude contracts with customers outside the platform.
Large online players can no longer classify their own goods or services more favourably than others on their platforms. Furthermore, developers must not be prevented from simply deleting preloaded software or application, nor can they be prevented from utilizing 3rd organization payment platforms to sale applications.
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