Live, rolling coverage of business, economics and financial markets as European Commission raises prospect of ‘heavy fines’ if big tech companies fail to comply with new law
The EU has opened investigations into Apple, Facebook owner Meta and Google owner Alphabet over their app stores, in the latest sign of the growing regulatory scrutiny on the power of big tech companies.
The European Commission will examine whether the big tech companies are preventing developers from steering customers away from their tightly controlled app stores, which could be anti-competitive.
Today, the commission opens five non-compliance investigations under the Digital Markets Act (DMA). They concern Alphabet’s rules on steering in Google Play and self-preferencing in Google Search, Apple’s rules on steering in the App Store and on choosing browsers and changing defaults, and Meta’s ‘pay or consent model’. We suspect that the suggested solutions put forward by the three companies do not fully comply with the DMA.
We are not convinced that the solutions by Alphabet, Apple and Meta respect their obligations for a fairer and more open digital space for European citizens and businesses. Should our investigation conclude that there is lack of full compliance with the DMA, gatekeepers could face heavy fines.
