On March 20th, the Financial Association reported (Editor Zhao Hao) that on Wednesday local time (March 19), the European Commission announced on its official website that $Alphabet-A (GOOGL.US)$ / $Alphabet-C (GOOG.US)$ antitrust charges against $Apple (AAPL.US)$ and ordered compliance with the EU's Digital Markets Act (DMA).

Source: European Union official website.

The press release stated that the European Commission has sent two preliminary investigation results to Alphabet, the parent company of Google, with regulators finding that certain characteristics and features of Google Search favor Alphabet's own services over those of competitors.

This violates the requirement for transparency, fairness, and non-discriminatory treatment of third-party services under the DMA. The European Commission also believes that the app market Google Play "does not freely direct consumers to other channels for better deals."

The European Commission explained that Alphabet evaluates its own services (such as shopping, hotel bookings, transportation, or financial and Sports results) more favorably in Google search results than similar services provided by third parties.

More specifically, Alphabet highlights its services by displaying them at the top of Google search results or in dedicated spaces, enhancing the visual format and filtering mechanisms, making its services more prominent compared to others.

The European Commission has communicated its preliminary opinion to Alphabet: the company has violated the DMA. However, Alphabet can still exercise its right of defense by responding in writing to these preliminary investigation results.

Pressuring Apple to "tear down walls".

In another statement, the European Commission provided guidance to Apple under the DMA, requiring Apple to enhance the interoperability of its products—allowing third-party products to integrate more deeply and seamlessly with the Apple ecosystem. Therefore, the European Commission demands that Apple allow third parties to develop innovative products and services on its platform.

The European Commission requests that Apple provide other device manufacturers and app developers with ① better access to the interaction features between the iPhone and these devices (for example, displaying notifications on smartwatches); ② faster data transfer; ③ simpler device setup (for example, pairing).

This will allow devices from other brands to run more smoothly on the iPhone, and device manufacturers will have new opportunities to bring innovative products to market, improving the user experience for consumers in Europe.

The European Commission also demands that Apple provide developers who wish to achieve interoperability with iPhone and iPad features with ① better access to technical documentation covering features that have not yet been opened to third parties; ② timely communication and updates; ③ a more predictable interoperability request review timeline.

The European Commission believes that under these measures, developers will be able to handle interoperability requests more quickly and fairly, thereby accelerating the ability to provide innovative services and hardware compatible with the iPhone and iPad to consumers in Europe.

In response to the EU's demands, an Apple spokesperson stated that these measures "trap us in cumbersome regulations that hinder Apple’s ability to innovate for European users and force us to give our new features away for free to companies that do not have to comply with the same rules."

The Apple spokesperson noted that we will continue to work with the European Commission to help them understand our concerns on behalf of our users.

It is worth mentioning that at the time the European Commission announced these measures, the Trump administration had been warning the EU not to over-regulate American tech giants. Previously, Trump had criticized the EU's accusations against American companies as "a form of taxation."

At the same time, there are reports that the EU is planning retaliatory measures against Silicon Valley in the USA, meaning if Trump follows through on his threat "to impose tariffs on the EU," Europe will drag the American service industry into the fires of trade war.

Editor/jayden