EU opens competition investigations into Apple, Google and Meta

EU has opened investigations into three of the world’s biggest tech firms over concerns about anti-competitive practices.

Apple, Google parent firm Alphabet, and Meta - the owner of Facebook, Whatsapp and Instagram - are each being investigated over non-compliancewiththeeuropeanunion's Digital Markets Act (DMA).

The rules, which were introduced in 2022 and came into full effect earlier this month, aim to enhance choice for consumersandstopthelargesttech platforms from creating or maintaining monopolies across different areas.

Companies found in breach of the rules face fines of up to 10 per cent of theirannualturnover– potentially billions of dollars for the biggest firms.

Announcingtheproceedings, theeuropeancommissionsaid it was investigating Apple and Google over so-called “steering rules” on their app stores and whether the two firms were doing enough to steer consumers to offers outside of their own stores free of charge – something which is required under the DMA.

The Commission said it was also investigating Alphabet over concernsitwaspreferencingits own services in search results, andwhetherapplemadeiteasy enoughforconsumerstoswitch tonon-applesoftwareorservices – such as internet browsers – on Apple devices.

Facebook parent firm Meta, meanwhile, is under scrutiny over its scheme which asks people to pay to avoid their data being used for adverts.

The Commission said it expects its investigation to take around a year to complete.

EU competition policy lead Margrethe Vestager said: “Today, the Commission opens five non-compliance investigations under the Digital Marthe kets 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 will now investigate the companies' compliance with the DMA, to ensure open and contestable digital markets in Europe.”