dma

Meta Platforms has offered to almost halve its monthly subscription fee for Facebook and Instagram to EUR 5.99 (roughly Rs. 540) from EUR 9.99 (roughly Rs. 900), a senior Meta executive said on Tuesday, a move that aims to address concerns from privacy and antitrust regulators.The price cut follows mounting criticism from privacy activists and consumer groups about Meta's no-ads subscription service in Europe, which critics say requires users to pay a fee to ensure their privacy.Meta launched the service in November to…

The EU’s head of antitrust Margrethe Vestager has revealed the bloc is taking a “keen interest” in the new fees Apple has put in place for app developers as part of its new alternative app marketplace policy. Apple introduced alternative app marketplaces to iPhone in the EU earlier this month with iOS 17.4. As a result, developers can now build their own app marketplaces to distribute software by means other than Apple’s App Store. Since then, Apple has also introduced Web Distribution for developers who want to offer…

Google Pixel smartphone users in Europe have reported seeing an option to change the default search engine. The option has been said to appear within the settings of Pixel Launcher, the default launcher for all Pixel smartphones. It is said that the option to change the search engine was offered by the tech giant to comply with the European Union's (EU) Digital Markets Act (DMA) that recently came into effect. Notably, Apple also added support for alternative app marketplaces and allowed…

The European Union’s new Digital Markets Act finally took effect last week, and that means the biggest companies in the technology industry were forced to comply. That includes the likes of Apple, Google, Meta, Microsoft, and more. These companies, designated as “gatekeepers” by the EU, are now subject to regulation. There is a financial incentive for the corporations to get it right, too. If they are not found to be in compliance, they could be heavily fined. The EU states that companies not found to be in compliance…

The compliance deadline for the six tech giants regulated under the European Union’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) expired yesterday. Which means Alphabet/Google, Amazon, Apple, ByteDance/TikTok, Meta and Microsoft are now under active assessment by EU enforcers. The bloc will monitor whether they’re abiding by DMA requirements to deal fairly with business users of their regulated core platform services and meeting other legal requirements in areas like data portability, platform interoperability and user choice. Failure…

It happened, after years of chin-wagging and back-and-forth and bad blood, it finally happened: the compliance date for the Digital Markets Act arrived on March 7th. From here on out, big tech needs to follow the regulations laid out by the EU — and this has the potential to usher in a sea change for the sector. While the rules laid down by the governing body are complex and multifaceted, the overall aim is pretty clear: to increase competition and break the monopoly of tech’s “gatekeepers.”…

Apple is working on a solution that will make it easier to switch from an iPhone to an Android smartphone. The company has published a new document detailing the list of changes it has already made, such as adding support for alternative app marketplaces and allowing third-party browsers to run their browser engine to comply with the European Union's (EU) Digital Marketing Act (DMA) which recently came into effect. It also shared its plans to add more interoperability features including…

Apple escalated its feud with Epic Games on Wednesday, blocking the Fortnite video-game maker from launching its own online marketplace on iPhones and iPads in Europe.The two companies have been in a legal battle since 2020, when the gaming firm alleged that Apple's practice of charging up to 30 percent commissions on in-app payments on its iPhone Operating System (iOS) devices violated US antitrust rules.The latest challenge from Epic comes as Apple struggles with concerns about tepid demand for its iPhones in China, and…

Apple is opening small cracks in the iPhone’s digital fortress as part of a regulatory clampdown in Europe that is striving to give consumers more choices—at the risk of creating new avenues for hackers to steal personal and financial information stored on the devices.The overhaul rolling out Thursday only in the European Union represents the biggest changes to the iPhone’s App Store since Apple introduced the concept in 2008. Among other things, people in Europe can download iPhone apps from stores that aren’t operated…

Google today is sharing more details about the fees that will accompany its plan to comply with Europe’s new Digital Markets Act (DMA), the new regulation aimed at increasing competition across the app store ecosystem. While Google yesterday pointed to ways it already complied with the DMA — by allowing sideloading of apps, for example — it hadn’t yet shared specifics about the fees that would apply to developers, noting that further details would come out this week. That time is now, as it turns out. Today, Google…