Tech Giants to Face EU Investigations over DMA Violations 

Tech giants, Apple, Google, and Meta are set to face investigations regarding potential breaches of the European Union’s Digital Market Acts (DMA), which could result in major fines by the end of the year, as reported by sources close to this issue. 

In the coming days, the European Commission is expected to announce the investigations simultaneously or in quick succession. It is also expected that these decisions will be made before the end of Margrethe Vestager, the EU antitrust Chief’s mandate in November. 

Committing violations of the Digital Market Acts could lead to fines of up to 10% of the companies’ global annual turnover. This landmark EU tech regulation requires tech giants to offer more options to users and competitors, thus ensuring fair competition. 

On the other hand, rivals of Meta, Google, as well as Apple have expressed their frustration regarding European Union’s competition regulator, asserting that the measure taken by these three companies aiming at reorganizing their core services are inadequate. 

For her part, and in an interview with Reuters, Vestager expressed concern that the recently introduced fees by Apple and Meta on their services could hinder users from benefiting from the DMA, which is likely to be key focus of any investigation. 

She also highlighted the tactics used by some companies to undermine competitive products or services, discouraging users from buying them, noting that such practices are risky. 

The EU antitrust Chief emphasized the need to expedite DMA investigations to issue decisions within six months, which will enable users as well as app developers to take advantage and experience the benefits of the new rules instantly. In fact, traditional EU antitrust investigations often span several years. 

Under the Digital Market Acts , Apple, Meta, Google, Microsoft, Amazon.com, and TikTok owner ByteDance are mandated to enable users to uninstall pre-installed software or apps if desired. Furthermore, they must seek users’ permission to utilize their data across different services or for personalized advertisements.  

It also prohibits these companies from showing bias towards their services or products over competitors’ offerings on their platforms. 

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