Registers of the European Union have performed their efforts on Wednesday to force Apple and Google to change important parts of their business, despite the possible pushback of the Trump administration about the regulation of American technology companies.
The European Commission, the executive power of the 27-country block, said that Apple and Google had violated a law in 2022 that was intended to guarantee fair competition in the digital economy.
The decisions add a new layer to geopolitical tensions between the United States and the European Union on issues ranging from trade and rates to Ukraine and military defense.
The committee said that a provisional opinion had established that Google has violated the 2022 law, the Digital Markets Act, by using its dominant search engine to send users to other Google services, giving it an unfair advantage over other online companies. Regulators also accused the technology giant of unfair limitations on his Google Play App Store that limited the offers that Customers could receive from App developers.
Apple was told to make it easier for makers of headsets, smartwatches and other connected devices to synchronize with Apple's iOS mobile operating system.
“Companies that are active in the EU, regardless of their place of establishment, must comply with the EU rules, including the Digital Markets Act,” said Teresa Ribera, the Executive Vice President of the European Commission charged with the competitive policy, in a statement. “With these decisions we simply implement the law.”
It appears from cases that the European Union intends to continue its aggressive supervision of the largest technology companies, despite the tension with the United States. For years, supervisors in Brussels are aimed at Amazon, Apple, Google, Meta, X and others about their business practices and the content that is shared on their platforms. But some analysts have wondered whether the authorities would alleviate their position to prevent them from creating more conflict with President Trump.
The Trump administration said in February that it would consider taking revenge if the American companies were the target according to the Digital Markets Act.
However, the administration has not always fully supported the large technology companies. This month, the Ministry of Justice repeated his requirement that Google would be broken down due to violations of antitrust and a policy continued under the BIDEN administration.
The announcements on Wednesday do not contain any fines, but the companies can ultimately be confronted with financial fines if they do not make changes that regulates regulators.
The actions that have been taken against Apple and Google are some of the first enforcement steps taken under the Digital Markets Act, a law adopted to give European supervisors a broader authority to force large technology companies to change their products and services to make it easier for smaller companies to compete.
Companies have argued that the regulations are delaying innovation in Europe. Apple has already delayed the release of some artificial intelligence functions in Europe because of what it says are regulatory challenges.
“Today's decisions package us in bureaucracy, so that Apple delayed the ability to innovate for users in Europe and force us to give our new functions away for free to companies that do not have to play according to the same rules,” Apple said in a statement.
Google said it had already made a number of changes in his search engine; His mobile operating system, Android; And his App Store to meet European laws.
“Today's announcement by the European Commission insists on more changes in Google Search, Android and Play that will harm European companies and consumers, hinder innovation, weaken security and break down the product quality,” the company said in a blog post.
