European regulators have launched a series of probes into Big Tech. In a latest move, Meta’s Facebook and Instagram could face hefty fines under the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA) due to concerns they had not adequately addressed risks to children.
Here are some of the actions taken by European watchdogs against big technology companies:
EUROPEAN UNION
Microsoft (MSFT.O), opens new tab expects to take additional steps to resolve an EU antitrust investigation into its chat and video app Teams, a part of its Office product, even as it seems likely to get EU charges in the case, its President Brad Smith said on June 4.
The European Commission launched an investigation into Microsoft’s tying of Office and Teams last year, following a 2020 complaint by Salesforce-owned (CRM.N), opens new tab Slack, a competing workspace messaging app.
The EC is also probing whether Microsoft is preventing customers from relying on certain security software provided by its competitors, according to a document that regulators sent to at least one rival of the company in January, seen by Reuters.
EU antitrust regulators said in the same month that Microsoft’s investment of more than $10 billion in ChatGPT maker OpenAI may be subject to EU merger rules, after a similar warning from Britain’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) in December.
OpenAI’s efforts to produce less factually false output from its ChatGPT chatbot are not enough to ensure full compliance with EU data rules, a task force at the bloc’s privacy watchdog said in may
Meta Platforms (META.O), opens new tab added safety features to its misinformation tracking tool CrowdTangle for use during June’s European Parliament elections in an attempt to allay EU concerns that triggered an investigation in April into the impact of Meta’s decision to phase out the tool.
The EC said at the time that Facebook and Instagram had failed to tackle disinformation and deceptive advertising in the run-up to European Parliament elections.
Facebook and Instagram are also being investigated for potential breaches of EU online content rules relating to child safety, which could lead to hefty fines, the EC said on May 16.
EU antitrust regulators had said on March 25 that Meta, Apple (AAPL.O), opens new tab, and Alphabet’s (GOOGL.O), opens new tab Google would be investigated for potential breaches of the DMA.
In September 2023, the EU picked out 22 so-called “gatekeeper” services run by Alphabet, Amazon (AMZN.O), opens new tab, Apple, Meta, Microsoft and TikTok-owner ByteDance, giving them six months to comply with the provisions of the DMA meant to make it easier for European users to move between competing services.
