The EU has opened investigations into Apple, Facebook owner Meta and Google owner Alphabet in the first probes under sweeping new tech legislation that could lead to heavy fines.
The European Commission announced on Monday that it would look at whether the firms are preventing developers from steering users away from their app stores.
Its investigation will be brought under new powers from the Digital Markets Act that took effect earlier this month and are targeted at Big Tech firms.
The rules aim to make digital markets “fairer” and more competitive by tackling systems that lock users into a single firm’s products or services.
Margrethe Vestager, executive vice-president in charge of competition policy, announced on Monday that the Commission had opened five non-compliance investigations under the act.
The probe concerns “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’”.
The Commission announced earlier this month that it was fining Apple €1.84bn (£1.57bn) for “abusing” its dominant position, finding that it broke EU antitrust rules by preventing app developers from telling iOS users about cheaper music subscription options outside of the App Store.
“We suspect that the suggested solutions put forward by the three companies do not fully comply with the DMA,” Vestager said on Monday.
Thierry Breton, the commissioner for internal market, added: “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.”
A spokesperson for Apple told City A.M.: “We’re confident our plan complies with the DMA, and we’ll continue to constructively engage with the European Commission as they conduct their investigations. Teams across Apple have created a wide range of new developer capabilities, features, and tools to comply with the regulation.
“At the same time, we’ve introduced protections to help reduce new risks to the privacy, quality, and security of our EU users’ experience. Throughout, we’ve demonstrated flexibility and responsiveness to the European Commission and developers, listening and incorporating their feedback.”
A spokesperson for Meta, which also owns Instagram and Whatsapp, said: “Subscriptions as an alternative to advertising are a well-established business model across many industries, and we designed Subscription for No Ads to address several overlapping regulatory obligations, including the DMA. We will continue to engage constructively with the Commission.”
Oliver Bethell, director of competition at Google, commented: “To comply with the Digital Markets Act, we have made significant changes to the way our services operate in Europe.
“We have engaged with the European Commission, stakeholders and third parties in dozens of events over the past year to receive and respond to feedback, and to balance conflicting needs within the ecosystem. We will continue to defend our approach in the coming months.”