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 regulations of US big tech, Financial Times reported.
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 it 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.
The European Commission posted a press release: Today, the European Commission adopted two decisions under the Digital Markets Act (DMA) specifying the measures that Apple has to take to comply with certain aspects of its interoperability obligation.
Interoperability enables a deeper and more seamless integration of third-party products with Apple’s ecosystem. Interoperability is therefore key to opening up new possibilities for third parties to develop innovative products and services on Apple’s gatekeeper platforms. As a result, a wider choice if of products will be available to consumers in Europe which are compatible with their Apple devices.
The Commission is assisting Apple in its compliance by detailing the measures needed for enabling interoperability with iOS for third-party connected devices and by streamlining the process put in place by Apple to handle future requests for interoperability with iPhone and iPad devices.
Reuters reported: Apple was ordered by EU antitrust regulators on Wednesday to open up its closed ecosystem to rivals, with the latter spelling out the details on how to go about it in line with the bloc’s landmark rules and where non-compliance could lead to an investigation and fines.
The move by the European Commission came six months after it opened so-called specification proceedings to ensure that the iPhone maker complies with the Digital Markets Act (DMA) which seeks to reign in the power of Big Tech.