Dominance, data, disinformation: Europe’s fight against Big Tech

Tech giants have been targeted by the EU for a number of allegedly unfair practices – Copyright AFP/File Philippe LOPEZ

The European Union warned Apple on Monday that its App Store was violating its digital competition rules, putting the iPhone maker at risk of a multibillion-dollar fine.

It’s the latest in a years-long battle between Brussels and tech giants, covering topics from data privacy to misinformation.

– Stifling competition –

Brussels has imposed more than 10 billion euros in fines on technology companies for abusing their dominant market position.

The latest threat against Apple comes three months after the bloc fined the Californian company 1.8 billion euros ($1.9 billion) for blocking European users from accessing information about cheaper music streaming services.

Among big tech companies, only Google has faced a larger antitrust fine – more than four billion euros in 2018 for using its Android mobile operating system to promote its search engine.

Google has also faced more than a billion in fines for abusing its power in the online shopping and advertising industries.

The European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, recommended last year that Google sell part of its business and could be fined up to 10% of its global revenue if it does not. did not comply with it.

– Confidentiality –

Ireland has the toughest data privacy fines because laws are enforced by local regulators and Dublin is home to the European offices of several major tech companies.

The Irish regulator fined TikTok €345 million for mishandling children’s data last September, just months after fining Meta a record €1.2 billion for illegal data transfer personal information between Europe and the United States.

Luxembourg previously held the record for data-related fines after fining Amazon €746 million in 2021.

– Taxation –

The EU has failed to convince tech companies to pay more taxes in Europe, where they are accused of funneling profits to low-tax economies like Ireland and Luxembourg.

In one of the most notorious cases, the European Commission in 2016 ordered Apple to pay Ireland more than a decade of back taxes – €13 billion – after ruling a sweetheart deal illegal with the government.

But EU judges overturned the decision, finding there was no evidence the company had broken the rules, a decision the Commission has been trying to overturn ever since.

The commission is also fighting to overturn another legal loss, after judges overturned the order requiring Amazon to repay 250 million euros in Luxembourg tax arrears.

– Disinformation, hate speech –

Web platforms have long been accused of failing to combat hate speech, disinformation and piracy.

The EU passed the Digital Services Act last year, which aims to force companies to tackle these issues or face fines of up to 6% of their global turnover.

The bloc has already begun to show how the DSA could be enforced, opening investigations into Facebook and Instagram for failing to combat election-related misinformation.

The bloc also warned Microsoft that lies generated by its AI research could fall foul of the DSA.

– Pay for news –

Google and other online platforms have also been accused of making billions from information without sharing that revenue with those who collect it.

To address this problem, the EU created a form of copyright law called “neighboring rights” that allows print media to demand compensation for the use of their content.

France was a test case for the rules, and after initial resistance, Google and Facebook both agreed to pay some French media outlets for articles displayed in web searches.