European regulators tighten grip on Big Tech

European regulators have launched a series of investigations into Big Tech in recent years. Here are some of the actions taken:

Digital markets act

The European Union's Digital Markets Act (DMA) came into effect in 2022, aiming to rein in the power of Big Tech and ensure a level playing field for smaller rivals.

The European Commission, which acts as the EU competition watchdog, charged Meta in July for failing to comply with the DMA in its new pay or consent advertising model. It has also started three investigations into Apple and one into Alphabet's Google over possible breaches. In September 2023, the EU named 22 so-called "gatekeeper" services run by Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft and TikTok-owner ByteDance, giving them six months to comply with the provisions of the DMA.

Meta and TikTok appealed against the gatekeeper status in November, with the latter losing a bid to suspend its designation in February. Apple said in April it would continue to engage with the Commission to comply with the rules.

 Digital services act

Tech companies are required to do more to tackle illegal and harmful content on their platforms under the EU's Digital Services Act (DSA) that came into effect last year. Meta's Facebook and Instagram are being investigated for potential breaches of EU online content rules relating to child safety, which could lead to hefty fines, the Commission said in May.

Antitrust

Apple will open its tap-and-go mobile payments system to rivals to settle an EU antitrust probe, regulators said in July. Brussels fined Apple 1.84 billion euros ($2 billion) in March for thwarting competition from music streaming rivals via restrictions on its App Store.

The Commission in June charged Microsoft with illegally bundling its chat and video app Teams with its Office product. It is also probing Microsoft's security software practices, a document seen by Reuters showed in February. An adviser to Europe's top court said in January that it should uphold Google's EU antitrust fine of 2.42 billion euros.

The Commission fined the company in 2017 for using its own price comparison shopping service to gain an unfair advantage over smaller European rivals.

European states

Individual European countries have also taken actions against Big Tech companies. Britain's antitrust regulator on Sept. 6 provisionally found Google had abused its dominant position in digital advertising to restrict competition. A month earlier, it started probes into its parent Alphabet and Amazon's collaboration with AI startup Anthropic. Other measures include a recent fine against Meta in Italy over unfair commercial practices and a French fine against Google for breaching EU intellectual property rules. A Spanish regulator, meanwhile, opened an investigation into possible anti-competitive behaviour by Apple's App Store in July.