In September 2023, the E.U. designated six internet “gatekeepers” as the first companies required to be in compliance with the Digital Markets Act. The deadline for compliance passed earlier this month and Alphabet, Apple and Meta have been identified as subjects of the first probes for non-compliance.
Asked about the speed with which the E.U. is acting, commissioner for internal market Thierry Breton said:
“The law is the law. We can’t just sit around and wait.”
The alleged breaches. The probes suggest that the companies have failed to comply with the law in different ways:
- Alphabet and Apple may have prevented businesses from telling users about cheaper products than their own.
- Apple may have failed in its obligation to allow users to easily uninstall apps and change default settings on the iPhone.
- Alphabet may have preferenced its own products in search results.
- Meta’s “no ads” subscription model may not be in compliance with the Act.
Why we care. These companies may have deep pockets and many lawyers, but regulatory headaches are mounting fast. Apple now faces an antitrust lawsuit in the U.S. Google is currently hamstrung in its plans to deprecate third-party cookies by the U.K. Competition & Markets Authority. And don’t forget the state lawsuits targeting Meta for making its products addictive for children.
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About the author
Kim Davis is currently editor at large at MarTech. Born in London, but a New Yorker for almost three decades, Kim started covering enterprise software ten years ago. His experience encompasses SaaS for the enterprise, digital- ad data-driven urban planning, and applications of SaaS, digital technology, and data in the marketing space. He first wrote about marketing technology as editor of Haymarket’s The Hub, a dedicated marketing tech website, which subsequently became a channel on the established direct marketing brand DMN. Kim joined DMN proper in 2016, as a senior editor, becoming Executive Editor, then Editor-in-Chief a position he held until January 2020. Shortly thereafter he joined Third Door Media as Editorial Director at MarTech.
Kim was Associate Editor at a New York Times hyper-local news site, The Local: East Village, and has previously worked as an editor of an academic publication, and as a music journalist. He has written hundreds of New York restaurant reviews for a personal blog, and has been an occasional guest contributor to Eater.
