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The Commission suspects they are not doing what they must to avoid crushing competition.
Image credit: Koshiro K/Shutterstock
The European Commission has opened non-compliance investigations under the Digital Markets Act (DMA) into Apple, Google, and Meta. The organization suspects they don't follow the rules enforced by it. It is also interested in Apple's new fee structure for third-party app stores, which have to pay €0.50 for "each first annual install per year over a 1 million threshold."
The Commission will look into Alphabet's and Apple's anti-steering rules to see if they prevent other providers from promoting their services and whether they are guilty of self-preferencing. As for Meta, the Commission is suspicious of its "pay or consent" model, which "may not provide a real alternative in case users do not consent, thereby not achieving the objective of preventing the accumulation of personal data by gatekeepers."
"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," said Thierry Breton, Commissioner for Internal Market.
The investigation will conclude within 12 months, and in case of an infringement, the Commission can impose fines up to 10% of the company's total worldwide turnover and 20% for repeated infringement. If infringements continue, the Commission may order the gatekeeper to sell a business or parts of it or ban it from acquisitions of additional services.
The announcement follows the drama between Apple and Epic Games, whose Fortnite was brought back to iOS together with the aforementioned fee policy. Apple first terminated Epic's developer account soon after its CEO Tim Sweeney criticized Apple's monopoly position but then promised to activate it after the European Commission got interested in the case.
Apple is a concern not only in the EU. Earlier this month, the US Justice Department filed an antitrust lawsuit against it over a monopoly in the phone department.
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