The European Commission (EC) is analysing its own investigations into major technology companies, including US-based Apple Inc, Meta and Google, and may change their scope, the Financial Times reports, citing informed sources.
All decisions and possible fines will be “on pause” until the analyses are completed, but technical work on the investigations will continue, the sources said.
The review comes amid calls from US companies for President-elect Donald Trump to intervene in the ongoing process, which they characterise as excessive EU coercion. The impact of Trump’s ascension to the US presidency was a factor in initiating the vetting, an EU official said, while insisting that was not the reason at all.
Some of the EC’s investigations are at an early stage, while others have seen significant progress. In particular, charges against Google following an investigation into its app shop were expected late last year. Regulators are currently waiting for a political leadership team to make final decisions on the Google, Apple and Meta cases, the Financial Times reports.
For its part, the EC said it “remains fully committed to the effective enforcement” of its rules. “There are no delays in finalising open cases and especially because of any political considerations,” the EC spokesman said. He also added current investigation cases “are not yet ready at a technical level” because they take time due to their complexity, novelty and “the need to ensure the legal credibility of the commission’s decisions.”
Two other FT sources said Brussels was waiting for “political direction” to make final decisions on Google, Apple and Meta.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg last Friday urged Trump to prevent European fines for US tech companies and complained that EU authorities have fined them “more than $30bn” over the past 20 years.
In December, it became known that Meta donated $1 million to Trump’s inaugural fund.
Last summer, the EC said it had found a violation of digital competition rules by Meta regarding the paid cancellation of ads in social networks Facebook and Instagram, and preliminarily found that Apple did not fulfil the obligations under the new Digital Markets Act (DMA), according to which the company must provide app developers with the ability to “direct” users to third-party resources without charging them.
Apple became the first company to be charged under the DMA. The EC called the fees charged by Apple to app developers for initially attracting users through the App Store as going “beyond what is strictly necessary.”
