Big Tech not yet complying with EU digital rules - consumer report

The big platforms still have work to do to comply with EU flagship regulation on digital markets, the Digital Market Act (DMA), according to a report by European consumer association BEUC. 

While acknowledging that they have taken certain steps to meet the new rules, BEUC calls on the Commission to look further into several remaining obstacles to opening up the platform’s ecosystems to consumers.

“Interoperability is key to open the market,” BEUC’s competition policy officer Sebastien Plant told Euronews. He added, “there has been some improvements from the big platforms, but we are not yet there, although the DMA is necessary to provide consumers with more and better choice.”

Applicable since 2023, the DMA includes obligations for designated “gatekeeper” platforms because of their size and dominance on the digital market, to make their systems interoperable to other businesses.

BEUC considered that in order to assess the full compliance of Meta with the DMA when it comes to the interoperability of WhatsApp and Messenger with third party instant messaging services, the company should carry out live testing on users, to see whether they can effectively  “make genuine informed choices on interoperability”.

The report said Apple users are able to change their default browsers and apps and can uninstall apps more easily on their Apple devices. However BEUC said it should also provide a one-step-one-click option to enable consumers to set a third party app as their default application.

It should also make the user journey clearer for un-installing Apple apps and should show the browser choice screen immediately after the iOS update, the report recommended.

As the DMA prevents platforms from treating their services and products more favourably than similar services, BEUC asked Google to open up its search results pages more to other vertical search services so that other businesses have a “fair” chance to compete.

In June, the EU enforcer found that Apple’s App Store prevented app developers from freely steering consumers to alternative channels for content. One week later, Meta was under the spotlight again for its “pay or consent” offer to Facebook and Instagram users which forces them to either pay or give up their data to use the service. The Commission sent its preliminary findings to the platform and will conclude its investigation by March 2025.

The Commission has also opened a probe against Google over concerns that it is preferencing its vertical search services over rival services.

Platforms breaching the DMA, can be fined of up to 10% of the company’s total worldwide turnover.