The EU Digital Markets Acts (DMA), which became enforceable last month, empowers the European Commission to rein in undesirable practices by Big Tech.
The latest rules require them to ensure that they aren’t engaging in anti-competitive practices and ensure they’re not giving their services preference over rivals on their own platforms.
The new regulations are believed to directly impact the “gatekeepers” of the industry – firms with a market capitalisation of at least Eur75bn and with a platform with 45 million monthly active end users in the EU. These would include the likes of Apple, Meta, Amazon and Alphabet.
In recent comments by Margrethe Vestager, Executive Vice-President of the European Commission for a Europe fit for the Digital Age, she observed that the latest rules could also result in the DMA compelling Apple to allow users to delete the Photos app on the iPhones, should they wish to do so.
On March 25, the EU confirmed that the Commission had reached a decision to open its first non-compliance investigations under the DMA and there were a total of five of them. One of these five which relates to the DMA’s objective to open closed ecosystems to enable competition at all levels is set to specifically impact Apple “Under Article 6(3) of the DMA, gatekeepers have an obligation to enable easy uninstallation of apps and easy change of default settings. They must also display a choice screen. Apple’s compliance model does not seem to meet the objectives of this obligation. In particular, we are concerned that the current design of the web browser choice screen deprives end-users of the ability to make a fully informed decision. Example: they do not enhance user engagement with all available options. Apple also failed to make several apps un-installable (one of them would be Photos) and prevents end-users from changing their default status (for example Cloud), as required by the DMA,” said Vestager in her remarks posted on the Commission’s website.
At present, with the current version of iOS, it isn’t possible to uninstall apps such as the App Store, Camera, Messages, Phone, Photos, Safari, and Settings from an iPhone. The latest investigations opened by the DMA will likely make Apple rethink some of its entrenched positions.
Separately, across the Atlantic, last month, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) joined by 16 other state and district attorneys general, filed a civil antitrust lawsuit against Apple for monopolisation or attempted monopolisation of smartphone markets. It relates to allegations that Apple is allegedly violating antitrust laws by blocking rivals from accessing hardware and software features of its iPhone and creating an illegal monopoly in smartphones that stamps out competition, stifles innovation and keeps prices artificially high.
