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Brussels is pressing ahead with regulatory action against Apple and Google under landmark legislation designed to expose the groups to new competition, despite tensions with President Donald Trump over the EU’s tough regulation of US big tech companies.
The European Commission, the bloc’s executive arm, on Wednesday charged Google’s parent company Alphabet with breaking the Digital Markets Act.
In preliminary findings, regulators said they were worried that Google’s search engine preferred its own services over rivals, despite a series of changes to Google Search, as well as whether the company was stifling competition by making it difficult for developers to “steer” consumers to offers outside of its app store.
Companies found in breach of the DMA face fines of up to 10 per cent of global revenue, doubled to 20 per cent for repeat offenders.
Google said the commission’s decision “will hurt European businesses and consumers, hinder innovation, weaken security, and degrade product quality”. It added that the required changes for Google Search will “make it harder for people to find what they are looking for and reduce traffic to European businesses.”
The commission on Wednesday also ordered Apple to open up its operating systems more to connected devices, such as smartwatches or headphones from other brands. The decision could further force open the iPhone maker’s iOS operating system in Europe, despite a number of concessions Apple has already made to Brussels designed to head off regulatory action.
While the decision on Apple cannot lead immediately to fines, if the company refuses to comply, the commission can take further steps under the DMA that could ultimately lead to financial penalties.
Apple said it “wrap[s] us in red tape, slowing down Apple’s ability to innovate for users in Europe and forcing us to give away our new features for free to companies who don’t have to play by the same rules. It’s bad for our products and for our European users.”
“Companies operating in the EU, irrespective of their place of incorporation, must comply with EU rules, including the Digital Markets Act,” said the EU’s competition chief Teresa Ribera “With these decisions, we are simply implementing the law.”
The decisions are the first sign that the new commission, which started its current mandate in December, will continue enforcing the DMA. That push comes despite the risk of potential retaliation by the administration of Trump, who has directly attacked EU fines on US companies, calling them a “form of taxation”.
From next week, the bloc is due to take more sensitive decisions on how to handle Big Tech because of legal deadlines to wrap up several investigations against Apple, Meta and Google.
These probes could result in immediate fines, risking an escalation of the transatlantic tensions amid an escalating trade war.
The US president is considering tariffs on countries that levy digital services taxes against American companies. According to a memo released last month, Trump said he would look into taxes and regulations or policies that “inhibit the growth” of US corporations operating abroad.
But the commission is also under pressure from other companies, civil society and the European parliament to stick firm by its own digital rule book, which only entered into force in 2022.
