The European Union launches proceedings against Apple, Google and Meta for infringements of competition rules

Large digital companies must comply with new rules in the European Union, as part of the Digital Services Regulation.

The European Union is honing its new weapons against the tech giants. The European Commission launched procedures against Apple, Alphabet (Google) and Meta (Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp) for alleged infringements of European competition rules on Monday March 25.

The main companies in the sector must respect new rules with the entry into force, at the beginning of March, of the Digital Markets Act (DMA), the European regulation on digital markets. “We can already see changes in the market. But we are not convinced that the solutions proposed by Alphabet, Apple and Meta meet their obligations”declared Monday the European Commissioner for the Internal Market, Thierry Breton.

The procedures take up well-known grievances, detailed in a press release. Among them, Alphabet is suspected of having exploited the virtual monopoly of its Google search engine to promote its own services. A case which has already earned him a fine of 2.4 billion euros in 2017, but the remedies proposed have never been deemed satisfactory.

Fines of up to 20% of turnover

Alphabet and Apple are also targeted for restrictions in their Google Play and App Store application stores, which resulted in a fine of 1.8 billion euros for Apple in early March. Meta is targeted for its paid subscription, which allows you to avoid being targeted by advertising, but which, according to the Commission, “does not offer a real alternative to users who do not give their consent” to provide their personal data. The Commission will also gather information on Amazon’s listing system, fearing it favors its own brands.

The European executive hopes to conclude these procedures within a maximum period of 12 months. The new regulation provides for fines of up to 20% of global turnover in the event of serious and repeated infringement (compared to 10% until now). Brussels has also given itself the power to dismantle offenders, a weapon of deterrence and last resort.