European consumers saw big changes to apps, social media and websites as the biggest tech companies aligned with EU laws this week.
Six companies designated as “gatekeepers” under the EU’s Digital Markets Act had until March 7 to implement the new rules, and the European Commission could impose fines of up to 10 percent of a company’s global turnover in the event of a breach.
Some of the changes for EU consumers included options to change default browsers and new opportunities to download iPhone apps.
Affected companies include Amazon, Apple, Google’s parent company Alphabet, Meta, Microsoft and TikTok owner ByteDance, which were declared “gatekeepers” in September 2023.
“Our new set of rules will now make online markets more open and competitive for small, innovative businesses to get a fair shot at it too,” Margrethe Vestager, executive vice president for competition policy, said in a statement.
“As consumers, we will have more affordable options online. This will profoundly change the way online markets work and open up the digital market, for the benefit of all European players and users,” she added.
What is changing for European consumers?
The rules affect everything from Google Maps to messaging services like WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger.
Google he said in January that users in Europe will see “an additional consent banner asking if some services can continue to share data for these purposes,” as well as changes to search because they can’t prioritize their services.
When users now set up an Android or iPhone, they will also be able to specify a default search engine.
Apple will now also allow iPhone users to download apps outside of their app store.
Meanwhile, Meta said that he would be changes WhatsApp and Messenger, as EU rules require interoperability between messaging systems, which the company said was a “technical challenge”.
Europeans were also asked if they wanted to create a new Messenger account separate from Facebook.
Microsoft said users could now uninstall Edge Browser and Bing web search and made changes to the way it handles Windows-related data.
LinkedIn users were asked if they wanted to exclude certain services such as Jobs from their accounts.
Technology companies must demonstrate their compliance with the rules by stating what measures they are taking in reports.
A public version of these reports will be available on a designated website.
On Thursday, the gatekeepers must also “submit to the Commission an independently audited description of all techniques used to profile consumers, together with a non-confidential version of the report”.
“We’ve been talking to gatekeepers for months to help them adapt. And we can already see changes happening in the market: competitors can set up alternative app stores, European users have more control over their data and are now empowered to make decisions they didn’t have before because of the default settings,” European Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton said in a statement.
“Any company found to be non-compliant will face severe sanctions, including as a last resort dissolution,” he added.