Two major American technology companies are reportedly facing new regulatory challenges in Europe.
One case concerns Apple’s App Store, and the other concerns Meta’s artificial intelligence (AI) assistant, Meta AI.
The Financial Times reported on Friday (June 14) that the European Commission (EC) will sue Apple after determining that the company has not complied with requirements that allow app developers to direct users to services available outside of Apple's App Store without charging them. The FT report cited anonymous sources as saying.
If charges are indeed brought against Apple, it could reportedly be the first time that the EC has brought charges under the recently enacted Digital Markets Act (DMA), after the EC announced in March that it would use its powers under the DMA to investigate Apple, Alphabet, and Meta.
The report added that regulators have only made preliminary findings and may reconsider their final decision if Apple changes its practices, and the timing of a decision may also change.
“We are confident that our plans comply with the DMA and we look forward to working constructively with the European Commission as its investigation progresses,” Apple said in a statement to the Financial Times.
Meanwhile, Meta announced in a blog update on Friday that it was pausing the launch of its AI assistant Meta AI in Europe after the Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC), acting on behalf of European Data Protection Authorities (DPAs), requested that Meta postpone the training of its large-scale language model (LLM) with content shared by adults on its Facebook and Instagram platforms.
In an update, the company said it was “disappointed” by the request, and that after taking into account feedback from European data protection authorities, the request represented “a step back for innovation in Europe.”
“We're committed to bringing Meta AI and the model that powers it to more people around the world, including in Europe,” Meta said in the update. “But simply put, without including local information, we can only offer people a second-rate experience, which means we can't release Meta AI in Europe at this time.”
