EU to push forward with Apple and Meta investigations

Next month, the European Union will announce whether Apple and Meta have adhered to the Digital Markets Act rules. Teresa Ribera, the competition chief for the bloc, confirmed this in an interview with Reuters.

She noted that the Union would not back down on its decision to investigate the American companies, despite its relationship with the United States being upended by the new American president, Donald Trump.

The 27-nation bloc implemented the Digital Services Act and the Digital Markets Act to protect its citizens from tech companies misusing their dominant position, and we have seen primarily American giants come under the crosshair of the European Commission – Meta, Alphabet, Amazon, and X (formerly Twitter).

Ribera stated that the EU needs to stick to its "strengths and principles" and "cannot transact on human rights, unity of Europe, and democracy and values". The United States and the Trump Administration stated the Union for having "too many rules," and the 47th president himself said he sees these acts against companies as a form of "taxation."

Teresa Ribera has the power to approve or veto multi-billion euro mergers and slap hefty fees on companies, seeking to bolster their market power by throttling smaller rivals. Apple was already pushed to allow third-party app stores for iOS, while Meta was targeted to push Marketplace on Facebook instead of allowing fair competition with other classified ads providers.

The social media X is also being investigated. It is owned by Elon Musk, one of Trump's closest advisors right now, but the Commissioner said it is not a question of who is the owner of the company, it is only being under scrutiny for breaching the EU's rules against illegal content.

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