Amazon, Apple, and Google will be bracing themselves for possible antitrust action from the EC
The inquiry forms part of the EC’s digital strategy: On Wednesday, the European Commission published the preliminary report of its competition inquiry into the market for consumer IoT products and services. The inquiry was launched in July 2020 as part of the EC’s digital strategy. The inquiry found that the sector is growing rapidly, particularly with regard to voice assistants as interfaces for interacting with smart devices and services. However, the EC notes that many respondents (around 200 companies across Europe, Asia, and the US) have voiced concerns that gatekeepers may already be emerging in this market and stifling competition.
The EC namechecks the usual suspects: Perhaps unsurprisingly, the EC highlights that Amazon, Apple, and Google have built their own ecosystems within and beyond the consumer IoT sector, and that many respondents said it is difficult to compete with these vertically integrated companies. The fact that they provide the most common operating systems, as well as the most common voice assistants, means they end up determining the processes for integrating smart devices in a consumer IoT system. The EC has found exclusivity and tying practices in relation to voice assistants, which could limit the possibility to use other assistants on the same device. Voice assistants also act as intermediaries between users and services, and control that relationship.
Scale and access to data are the problem once again: Providers of operating systems and voice assistants have extensive access to data, such as how users interact with third-party devices and services. The EC believes this is creating an advantage for the improvement of these companies’ own voice assistants, and also allows them to gain favourable positions in adjacent markets. Respondents have also raised a lack of interoperability and the prevalence of proprietary technology. This results in unilateral control from OS and voice assistants providers who can allegedly limit functionalities of third-party devices and services.
More antitrust cases coming? Based on the EC’s preliminary findings, it is possible that the EC could be mulling a new antitrust action against Amazon, Apple, or Google. Our Platforms and Big Tech Tracker has the EC as the most active authority in launching ex-post competition inquiries, with nine cases opened between 2010 and 2021, of which four were in the last year. The preliminary report will now be subject to consultation until 1 September. By the sound of it, Big Tech will need to make convincing arguments to address the EC’s concerns.
Source: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/IP_21_2884
