EU Commission is Investigating Possible DMA Violations From Apple, Google and Meta

The European Commission announced today the launch of several investigations to determine whether Apple, Google, and Meta still fail to comply with the Digital Markets Act (DMA). The new EU legislation aims to regulate some online services provided by “gatekeepers,” a term that designates large tech companies in position to threaten competition in the digital economy.

The EU Commission’s DMA non-compliance investigations will be focusing on the following aspects:

Google’s and Apple’s steering rules in their mobile app stores: The EU Commission is concerned that Apple and Google may still be preventing developers from communicating direcly with consumers and offer them promotions that wouldn’t be required to to go through the App Store and Play Store.

Google’s self-preferencing on Search: The Commission wants to find out if Google is no longer giving its own services such as Google Shopping, Google Flights, or Google Hotels a preferential treatment in its search results.

Apple’s user choices obligations in iOS 17.4: In the EU, iOS 17.4 now lets users uninstall more Apple apps and Safari also offers a browser choice screen on first launch. The EU Commission says that these changes may not go far enough to comply with the DMA.

Meta’s “pay or consent” model: The EU Commission will investigate whether Meta’s new ad-free subscription for Facebook and Instagram users in the EU provides a real alternative to users who don’t want these platforms to collect their personal data for targeted advertising.

The EU Commission also announced today that it’s looking into Apple’s new fee structure for EU developers interested in offering their apps on alternative app stores or directly on the web. Indeed, the “Core Technology Fee” that Apple wants developers to pay for the distribution of their apps once they cross the 1 million downloads threshold may not be DMA compliant.

Moreover, the Commission is concerned about Amazon possibly giving its own brand products a preferential treatment, something that also wouldn’t be compliant with the DMA. The EU regulator also announced today that it has given Meta another six month to make Facebook Messenger interoperable with other messaging apps.

After the EU Commission completes its various investigations, the regulator will tell Apple, Google, and Meta what they need to do to address its potential concerns. If these companies still fail to comply with the DMA, they could be facing fines up to 10% of their total worldwide turnover.