Big Tech in the crosshairs of European market and data regulators

It follows Apple's €1.8bn EU competition fine

European regulators have launched a series of probes against Big Tech. 

In the latest one, Apple was hit by a €1.8bn EU competition fine for preventing Spotify and other music streaming services from informing users of payment options outside its App Store. Apple criticised the EU decision, saying it would challenge it in court.

But other US tech giants have been in the crosshairs. Here are some of the actions taken by European watchdogs to keep a tab on big technology companies. 

Google-owned Alphabet's €2.4bn competition fine should be upheld by Europe's top court, an adviser to the court said in January after the European Commission fined the company in 2017 for using its own price comparison shopping service to gain an unfair advantage over smaller European rivals.

EU competition regulators said in January Microsoft's investment of over €9.2bn in ChatGPT maker OpenAI may be subject to EU merger rules, following a similar warning from the UK Competition and Markets Authority in December. 

Google may have to sell part of its lucrative Adtech business to address concerns about anti-competitive practices, EU regulators said in June. Google criticised a potential order in December, saying it was disproportionate and not right for its advertising partners.

In November, EU regulators asked Microsoft's rivals whether the proposal to unbundle its chat and video app Teams from its Office product is sufficient to address their concerns, after the European Commission launched an investigation into its Office and Teams tie-up in July.

In September, the EU picked out 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 its wide-ranging Digital Markets Act. Meta and ByteDance both appealed against the "gatekeeper" status in November, with the latter losing a bid to suspend its designation in February.

In Britain, the media regulator in October asked the country's competition authority to investigate Amazon and Microsoft's dominance of the UK cloud market. CMA will complete its investigation by April 2025.

Meanwhile, the French competition authority raided Nvidia's local offices in September. The watchdog disclosed the raid, but did not name the company beyond saying it was in the "graphics cards sector". Nvidia declined to comment. 

The French competition authority in July said Apple may have violated regulations related to the utilisation of iPhone user data in advertising.

In Germany, Google agreed to change its user data practices to end a German investigation aimed at curbing its data-driven market power.

Italy's competition agency said in May it had opened a probe into Apple for alleged abuse of its dominant position in the apps market. In April, the watchdog then took measures against Meta over an alleged abuse of its position in the country, in a probe involving the rights to music posted on the group's platforms. 

OpenAI's ChatGPT chatbot was temporarily banned in Italy in March over concerns by the national data protection authority, but was made available to users again in April. 

And Italy's competition authority said in March it had opened an investigation into TikTok for allegedly breaching its rules by allowing the publication of "dangerous content" inciting suicide, self-harm and poor nutrition.

Meanwhile, the Dutch competition regulator said in October it had rejected Apple's objections against fines of €50m it had given the company over failure to comply with regulations aimed at limiting the dominant position of Apple's App Store. Apple will appeal the decision in Dutch courts. 

Reuters