BEUC: ‘Tech companies massively ignore Digital Markets Act’

Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, ByteDance, Meta, Microsoft: all of these tech companies fail to comply with the Digital Markets Act (DMA).

The Digital Markets Act or DMA is legislation that was drafted to protect European consumers from powerful tech companies that abuse their dominant market position, offer them greater choice, and create a level-playing field for newcomers. The DMA went into effect in November 2022 and became applicable in May 2023.

The DMA targets the largest players and digital platforms that operate in the EU, also known as ‘gatekeepers’. The European Commission has identified over twenty of these gatekeepers that offer ‘core platform services’ in the EU, including Alphabet, Apple and Meta. They had until March 2024 to comply with all of the DMA’s provisions.

The Bureau Européen des Unions de Consommateurs (BEUC), the European consumer organization that represents the interests of all European consumers, claims that numerous gatekeepers are not living up to the rules that have been laid down in the DMA.

In a research paper BEUC argues that Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, ByteDance, Meta and Microsoft are guilty of violating one or more rules.

Alphabet, for example, continues to prioritize its own services in the search results over the competition. The search engine mogul also doesn’t ask users directly for permission to collect their data. Instead, the company uses third-party cookie banners to get their consent. Also, Alphabet doesn’t make it easy for consumers to change their default settings for web browsers and search engines, as the DMA requires.

The BEUC argues that Amazon also prioritizes its own products in search results and promotions on its webshop. Furthermore, the online retailer uses dark patterns and behavioral techniques to steer consumers to consent to use their personal data across Amazon services and make it harder to unsubscribe from Amazon Prime than to subscribe.

According to the BEUC, Apple is hindering the use of alternative app stores on its devices and discourages the use of other web browsers than Safari. Although Apple allows third-party app stores on its platforms, installing them is complex. In addition, the consumer organization claims that default settings are difficult to change and consumers are not sufficiently informed about cheaper, alternative payment services.

Like Amazon, ByteDance and Meta use behavioral techniques, misleading language and ‘other harmful choice architecture’ to persuade users to allow the company to collect and use their data across various services. The consumer organization says Meta is not meeting its obligations to make chat services like WhatsApp and Messenger interoperable with other messaging services.

And last but not least, BEUC raises concerns about consumers’ ability to make ‘freely given, specific and informed choices’ to use their data across various services provided by Microsoft.

“To demonstrate compliance with the DMA as is required, it is essential for gatekeepers to test each of their end user interface designs on actual consumers in relation to the terms of the relevant DMA obligation,” the BEUC concludes.