Any violations are likely to be met with a hefty penalty considering the EU’s previous punishments for other companies. “We are gathering information on the issue and we have sent quite a number of questionnaires to market participants in order to understand this issue in full. These are very early days and we have no conclusions, we haven’t formally opened a case. We are trying to make sure that we sort of get the full picture because we saw it in our own sector inquiry and this is also what a lot of people are talking about by now, so we do the follow-up.”
Clamping Down
Indeed, all of these companies have fallen foul of EU laws at some point, often resulting in harsh penalties. From Apple’s tax problems and Microsoft Windows privacy practices to Google’s record fines for stifling competition, Europe is somewhere tech giants are being forced to adhere to laws.
