EU risks more tariffs from Trump - Results of investigations into "Big Tech" could increase tensions with the US
The European Commission will make decisions to determine whether Apple, Meta and Google have violated EU digital competition laws. These decisions could hit the companies with fines of up to 10 percent of their worldwide revenue.
In recent weeks, the bloc's Digital Trade Act has come under constant criticism from US President Donald Trump, who said it extorts American companies overseas. The White House has threatened additional tariffs in response to the EU's tech regulation.
But an immovable deadline expiring on March 19 forces the Commission to tell Apple exactly how it should open up its products and services to rivals.
Normally, this would be uncontroversial; a procedural step to bring a company into compliance with a new law. But any decision to censor Big Tech risks angering Trump.
After that, things get more serious, as the Commission begins to face deadlines to complete its multiple year-long non-compliance investigations against Apple, Meta, and Google.
EU officials have repeatedly promised that decisions will come soon, at least for Apple and Meta, prompted by complaints from users like Epic Games and Spotify, who say compliance efforts from Big Tech so far have been weak.
The bloc currently has six open cases against Apple, Meta and Google for non-compliance with various parts of the Act. While the investigations are technically supposed to be completed within a year, these time frames are not set. The main target is Apple, which faces three investigations for non-compliance with the Markets Act.
Next week, the Commission will finalize one of these investigations, into Apple's app rules. App developers claim that the current rules unfairly prevent them from turning customers away from Apple's payments system and the fees the company charges developers.
The next step will be Meta's rules regarding payments or operating permits, which the Commission should finalize in the coming weeks.
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