Vestager told reporters on Monday that checking whether companies’ compliance plans actually work for smaller players was a “very high priority for us.”
The iPhone maker has warned that the EU changes undermine the security of its devices by allowing potentially dangerous software to be loaded on its phones via non-Apple app stores. The Commission has been skeptical of this argument, with Vestager saying companies can “indeed have safe technology also with more than one app store.”
To check on compliance the Commission will need “data, computer, AI specialists and also behavioral scientists, people with behavioral economics or basic behavioral insights expertise,” Vanessa Turner, of the consumer group BEUC, told POLITICO.
The Commission is also leaning on help from national competition authorities, with some staff being sent to Brussels to work on cases. The Netherlands’ competition regulator seconded two of its officials to the EU’s Brussels hub to work on the DMA. Others like antitrust agencies in France and Germany have been eager to throw their hats into the ring.
But a major stumbling block will likely be the EU courts where some companies are already challenging the DMA and where smaller firms could take cases to demand EU action.
Apple, TikTok-owner Bytedance and Facebook’s Meta have appealed the EU decision to label them as digital gatekeepers for some services. Apple argued that its App Store and Safari browser should be considered as separate services on laptops, iPhones and iPads, so shouldn’t meet the criteria to be labeled as gatekeepers. Already, Microsoft and Apple successfully won the right for some of their services to be taken out of the most strict antitrust oversight.
