The European Commission has officially targeted technology companies and their services under the new Digital Markets Act, all the companies listed in the interim list released in early July are predominantly American tech giants.
The list includes companies such as Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, and Microsoft from the United States, as well as ByteDance from China, according to the list, twenty-two platforms must now comply with the obligations of the Digital Markets Act by March 6, 2024.
The Digital Markets Act is the European Union’s attempt to curb the market dominance of major tech companies by opening up platforms, reducing ecosystem restrictions, and anti-competitive behavior, thus making them compete on the merits of their products and services alone.
Major messaging apps are required to make themselves interoperable with competitors, while operating systems must enable external app stores and allow developers to provide alternative in-app payment options.
Notably, Samsung, previously listed, managed to escape the list by demonstrating that it does not meet the minimum requirements of the law regarding its web browser.
Microsoft’s Bing search engine and Edge browser, as well as its advertising service, are not included in the list, but the Commission has opened investigations to assess whether they meet the regulatory standards.
The same applies to Apple’s iMessage service, with the Commission stating that this investigation will not take more than five months but could potentially force Apple to make iMessage interoperable with competing services upon request.
The European Commission is also considering whether to include the iPad’s operating system on the list, with an investigation set to last no longer than a year.
The specific rules that companies must adhere to depend on the services that the Commission deems subject to regulation.
Instagram and Facebook, for example, are regulated as social network services, while Google Search is regulated as a search engine, and Windows as an operating system.
The companies are required to provide users with access to other services, and operating system providers must allow the uninstallation of pre-installed apps and changes to default system settings, such as virtual assistants and web browsers.
Companies are prohibited from self-preferencing their products and services over others on their platforms, the Commission has laid out extensive questions and answers covering all the obligations.
In case companies fail to comply with the rules of the Digital Markets Act, the European Commission can impose fines of up to 10% of the company’s worldwide turnover or up to 20% for repeated offenses, the Commission can even impose structural remedies, such as forcing companies to divest parts of their businesses.
