Maintain pressure. While the digital giants had until March 7 to comply with the new European regulation on digital markets – the Digital Market Act (DMA) – the Commission wants to make an impact. Monday March 25, it launched five procedures against Apple, Alphabet and Meta, which it suspects of not having drawn all the consequences from the new rules.
Before adopting the DMA, the Commission had not remained inactive in the face of these hyper-powerful groups, with uncompetitive practices, without the fines it imposed on them, sometimes in billions of euros, having made it possible to change the situation . “The DMA has been in place for eighteen days and we can already see more changes in Big Tech than in ten years”says Thierry Breton today.
But “we are not convinced that Alphabet, Apple and Meta are meeting their obligations”, continues the Internal Market Commissioner. Less than three months before the European elections, scheduled for June 6 to 9, he also wants to show citizens a concrete Europe, which works for them.
Easily uninstall apps
The launch of these investigations in such a rapid time “risks confirming industry fears that the process will be politicized”, judges the Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA). The tech lobby denounces the “rush” of the community executive, which he suspects “to rush into investigations without knowing what [il] investigation “.
“It’s not haste, it’s entirely timely”, retorts Margrethe Vestager, the competition commissioner. These investigations, continues the Dane, are, on the other hand, “iconic” of the DMA, which aims to facilitate innovation in Europe while ensuring healthy competition capable of lowering prices and offering consumers choice.
Alphabet and Apple are suspected of limiting, in their application stores – Google Play for the first, App Store for the second – “the ability of developers to freely communicate and promote their offers and to conclude contracts directly” with end users, “in particular by imposing various fees”.
Another complaint made against the Apple firm: it would not respect the obligation to offer a means of easily uninstalling applications – “like Photos”, specifies Margrethe Vestager – or the browser (Safari) which appears, by default, on its users’ screens. Alphabet, for its part, is suspected of favoring its own services (Google Shopping, Google Flights or Google Hotels) when a search is carried out in its search engine.
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