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Apple, Google parent company Alphabet, and Meta could be violating the European Union's Digital Markets Act (DMA), the European Commission says.
The commission is now investigating the three big tech "gatekeepers" over their policies, according to a Monday statement. This round of investigations are expected to take less than a year to complete.
Apple's App Store and Google's Play Store still have some restrictions around allowing developers to link out to and show app users external payment options that could possibly be in conflict with the DMA, which passed in 2022 but only just recently took full effect in the EU. The commission is also looking into whether Apple's fees for third-party EU app stores and sideloading terms pose a concern.
Google Search is also being investigated over whether its results prioritize Google unfairly. Amazon's e-commerce site is also a potential concern if it's prioritizing its own Amazon brand, according to the announcement.
Apple is also being probed because it has to allow EU users to uninstall any iOS app, change default settings, and offer alternative default web browser options under the new law.
"Apple's measures, including the design of the web browser choice screen, may be preventing users from truly exercising their choice of services within the Apple ecosystem," the commission said in its statement.
Meta's so-called "pay or consent" approach to handling EU's opt-out data collection rules are also under investigation. Meta currently requires EU users to either consent to their data being used to serve them ads, or pay $10 a month to go ad-free across its services. The agency is deliberating whether this binary is a "real alternative" for users to escape Meta's data collection.
Meta has been given a six-month extension to ensure its Facebook Messenger service complies with the DMA's interoperability requirements even though Meta has already announced that it's rolling out interoperability for Messenger and WhatsApp in the EU earlier this month.
EU regulation could be costly for tech firms that don't make changes to comply with its laws. Earlier this month, the EU fined Apple $1.9 billion for violating antitrust rules separate from the DMA. If Apple, Google, Meta, or Amazon are found to be violating the DMA, they could face financial penalties of 10-20% of their annual global revenue.