The European Commission has laid out plans to begin investigating Apple, Meta, and Google, all because it suspects that the three companies are not conforming to the antitrust rules set in place by the Digital Markets Act.
The regulator believes that Google's Play Store and Apple's App Store each show preferences to their own respective apps and services, with Google even being under investigation for how its browser does similar. Apple is also in the firing line for browser choice on iOS systems, and Meta is being investigated for its "pay or consent" ad targeting system. Meta has also been told that it has 18 months to make its Messenger instant-messaging system interoperable with other messaging services.
Fee structuring for the App Store, and even storefronts operated by Amazon are being studied too to determine whether they also prioritise self-developed/operated products.
The investigations are expected to take around 12 months to be completed, and once this has happened, each of the major tech companies will be informed about what they need to do to ensure they do not breach the DMA's antitrust policies. If they do not take these precautions and guidelines into effect, each company could face significant financial reparations of 10% of total annual global revenue, and potentially even as high as 20% of annual global revenue if there are deemed to be repeated offences.
Thanks, The Verge.