Articles about European Commission

The European Commission has fined Google €2.95 billion (about $3.19 billion) for abusing its dominance in online advertising technology. The penalty, announced on Friday, September 11, follows findings that the search giant favored its own services at the expense of rivals, advertisers, and publishers.

The Commission ordered the company to end the practices and submit a plan within 60 days to address conflicts of interest in the adtech supply chain.

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Elon Musk -- or his company, X, at least -- has been given until mid-February to provide the European Commission with details of how its recommendation algorithm works.

The request is part of a wider investigation by the EC to ensure that X is complying with the Digital Services Act (DSA). Many would be interested to learn something about how the recommendation system of this and other social media platforms works, and the Commission has further demands as well.

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Social media darling Bluesky is wooing users and drawing many away from X. But while the platform is enjoying a meteoric rise in popularity, the European Commission is unimpressed with its failure to disclose information.

The commission points out that all social media platforms operating within the European Union must clearly publish key pieces of information, including how many EU users there are. Bluesky does not do this, nor reveal where the company is legally established.

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Apple's practices with its App Store and the policies relating to it means that the company is in breach of European Union laws. The European Commission says that Apple fails to comply with the Digital Markets Act (DMA).

The iPhone-maker has been criticized following an investigation by the Commission, and the findings say that App Store rules "prevent app developers from freely steering consumers to alternatives channels for offers and content".

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The latest online service to find itself facing scrutiny from the European Commission is TikTok. The Chinese-owned, video-based social media platform faces a probe from the Commission after an initial investigation into whether the company had breached the Digital Services Act (DSA).

Particular areas interest are TikTok's use of algorithms to surface content, with investigators worried about whether they create a "rabbit hole effect" and encourage addictive behavior. TikTok also faces criticisms for various failures to protect younger users, but there are concerns about the overall transparency of the platform, but especially in relation to advertising.

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Microsoft has announced that it will unbundle Teams from Microsoft 365 and Office 365 in the EEA and Switzerland starting in October -- and this will mean a price reduction.  

The move comes after the European Commission expressed concerns about the bundling of the software. Microsoft describes the decision as being part of "proactive changes", and the company will no doubt be hoping that it is enough to stop further probing and legislation. For now, the unbundling is limited to Europe.

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Just last month, the UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) blocked the proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard by Microsoft because of concerns about the impact on competition in the cloud gaming arena. In the US, the Federal Trade Commission is also seeking to block the deal

But now EU regulators have cleared the acquisition, subject to conditions. The European Commission will hold Microsoft to commitments it has made to ensure gamers in Europe will have  the ability to stream all Activision Blizzard games for which they have a licence via any cloud game streaming services, as well as a corresponding free license to cloud game streaming service providers to allow EEA-based gamers to stream any Activision Blizzard's PC and console games.

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