EU

EU antitrust regulators ask for more info on Amazon’s iRobot acquisition

EU antitrust regulators have postponed their investigation into Amazon’s $1.7 billion acquisition of iRobot, a robot vacuum cleaner maker, due to a lack of information provided by the companies. The European Commission, responsible for overseeing competition in the 27-country bloc, asked Amazon for necessary information to be supplied.

The European Commission has raised concerns that the acquisition could result in reduced competition in the market for robot vacuum cleaners and strengthen Amazon’s already dominant position as an online marketplace provider. This signals the need for a thorough investigation into potential antitrust issues. The investigation delay is a result of Amazon and iRobot’s failure to provide the required information, triggering a merger investigation procedure. Once the missing information is provided, a new deadline will be established for the Commission’s decision.

The European Commission’s warning about diminished competition in the robot vacuum cleaners market suggests that the deal might lead to fewer alternatives for consumers, potentially resulting in higher prices or limited innovation. Moreover, reinforcing Amazon’s market dominance as an online marketplace raises concerns about its impact on other online retailers and the overall competitive landscape.

Overall, the delayed investigation demonstrates the European Commission’s commitment to ensuring fair competition and preventing the concentration of power in the hands of a few dominant players. It underscores the need for companies involved in mergers and acquisitions to comply with regulatory requirements and promptly provide requested information to facilitate a comprehensive review process.

European Commission designates six tech companies as gatekeepers under Digital Markets Act

The European Commission has designated six major tech companies, including Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, ByteDance, Meta, and Microsoft, as gatekeepers under the Digital Markets Act (DMA). The designation applies to a total of 22 core platform services provided by these companies.


Under the DMA, digital platforms can be designated as gatekeepers if they play a crucial role in connecting businesses and consumers in relation to core platform services. Following a 45-day review process, the Commission confirmed the gatekeeper status for the designated companies.

At the same time, four market investigations have been initiated by the Commission to further examine Microsoft’s and Apple’s claims that some of their core platform services do not qualify as gateways.

The Commission has also concluded that Gmail, Outlook.com, and Samsung internet Browser meet the thresholds set by the DMA to qualify as gatekeepers. However, Alphabet, Microsoft, and Samsung provided valid arguments demonstrating that these services do not act as gateways for the specified core platform services. Consequently, the Commission decided not to designate these services as core platform services, meaning that Samsung is not designated as a gatekeeper for any core platform service.

Source: European Commission

Source: European Commission

Designated gatekeepers now have six months to ensure compliance with the DMA’s obligations. Gatekeepers are granted six months to submit a detailed compliance report outlining their adherence to the DMA’s obligations. In cases where a gatekeeper fails to meet DMA requirements, the Commission has the authority to impose fines of up to 10% of the company’s total worldwide turnover and up to 20% in cases of repeated infringement. Additionally, the Commission can introduce further remedies, such as mandating the sale of certain business parts or prohibiting gatekeepers from acquiring additional services related to systemic non-compliance.

Source: European Commission

Source: European Commission

Why does this matter?


The DMA is aimed at preventing gatekeepers from imposing unfair conditions on businesses and end users, and ensuring open and competitive digital markets. It works in conjunction with the Digital Services Act, proposed in December 2020, which addresses the negative consequences stemming from the behaviours of online platforms acting as digital gatekeepers to the EU single market. The DMA came into effect in November 2022 and has been applied since May 2023.

Antitrust complaint in Germany against Microsoft on Teams bundling

The German company ‘Alfaview’ has filed an antitrust complaint against Microsoft with the European Union. They claim that bundling video app Teams into its Office product gives Microsoft an unfair advantage in the communication software market.


A Microsoft spokesperson emphasized that they will “continue to engage cooperatively with the Commission in its investigation and are open to pragmatic solutions that address its concerns and serve customers well”.

This is the second complaint that Microsoft has received regarding the bundling of Teams after Salesforce -owned workspace messaging app, Slack filed an antitrust complaint in the EU for the same issue in 2020. Regulators are already preparing to investigate the matter. Microsoft has been fined €2.2bn in the past decade for practices that are in breach of EU competition rules. Although Microsoft has proposed a price reduction for its Office product that excludes the Teams app, regulators are seeking a bigger reduction.

The EU Commission presents EU strategy to lead on Web 4.0 and virtual worlds

The European Commission has adopted a new strategy for Web 4.0 and virtual worlds. The EU strategy aims to steer the next technological transition and ensure an open, secure, trustworthy, fair, and inclusive digital environment for EU citizens, businesses, and public administrations.

The strategy aims to empower people and reinforce skills, support a European Web 4.0 industrial ecosystem, promote virtual public services, and shape global standards for open and interoperable virtual worlds. The Commission believes a Web 4.0 will be a next generation of the Internet infrastructure that will allow an integration between digital and real objects and environments, and enhanced interactions between humans and machines.

The strategy is based on consultations with citizens, academia, and businesses and builds on the work of the European Commission on virtual worlds.

Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA)

Regulation (EU) 2023/1114 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 31 May 2023 on markets in crypto-assets, and amending regulations. The EU market rules for crypto-assets

Crypto-assets are one of the main applications of distributed ledger technology. Crypto-assets are digital representations of value or of rights that have the potential to bring significant benefits to market participants, including retail holders of crypto-assets. Representations of value include external, non-intrinsic value attributed to a crypto-asset by the parties concerned or by market participants, meaning the value is subjective and based only on the interest of the purchaser of the crypto-asset.

European Commission publishes legislative proposal for a digital euro

The proposed legislation aims to ensure that a digital euro would have legal tender status, be easily accessible to all individuals, offer basic services for free, protect privacy and data, and prevent money laundering and terrorist financing risks.

The European Central Bank (ECB) welcomes the proposal and supports the protection of the legal tender status of euro cash. “The legislative proposal is key to ensuring that the digital euro brings value to the people, taking the appreciated features of cash into the digital sphere”, said Executive Board member Fabio Panetta

Earlier in 2022, the EU launched the consultations process to help in the act preparation. The legislative act must be adopted before a decision to issue a digital euro can be made.

Statement of Objections by the EU Commission on Google’s practices in adtech

The European Commission has informed Google of its preliminary view that the company breached EU antitrust rules by distorting competition in the advertising technology industry (‘adtech’). Google, has been accused of abusing its dominant position in the adtech industry by favouring its own services over competitors, advertisers and publishers. According to the European Commission’s Statement of Objections, Google is dominant in the European Economic Area-wide markets for publisher ad servers with its service ‘DFP’ and for programmatic ad buying tools for the open web with its services ‘Google Ads’ and ‘DV360’. The Commission believes that Google has breached EU antitrust rules by distorting competition in the advertising technology industry.

As a conclusion in its investigation, the Commission has found that Google has abused its dominant positions by favouring its own ad exchange, AdX, in the ad selection auction run by its dominant publisher ad server, DFP. For example, Google is accused of informing AdX in advance of the value of the best bid from competitors which it had to beat to win the auction. Furthermore, Google Ads and DV360 were found to be placing bids on AdX, making it the most attractive ad exchange.

A behavioural remedy is likely to be ineffective to prevent the risk that Google continues such self-preferencing conducts or engages in new ones. The Commission’s preliminary view is therefore that only the mandatory divestment by Google of part of its services would address its competition concerns.

European consumer organization files complaint against social media platforms over misleading promotion

The European Consumer Organization (BEUC) filed a complaint with the European Commission and consumer authorities against Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, and Twitter. It alleges that these platforms facilitate the ‘misleading’ promotion of cryptocurrencies. In BEUC’s report, titled ‘Hype or harm? The great social media crypto con’ accused social media platforms of using ads and influencers to promote cryptocurrencies, which they deemed an ‘unfair commercial practice’ that puts investors at risk of losses.

Emphasizing the importance of enforcing strict rules on digital asset advertising on social media and preventing influencers from misleading the public, the organization urged the Consumer Protection Cooperation Network to take action in this regard. BEUC also wants the European Commission to assess consumer protection on social media and promote cooperation between consumer groups and the European Supervisory Authorities to protect consumers from misleading promotions of digital assets.

Additionally, BEUC stated that neither the EU’s Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) nor the Digital Services Act (DSA) offers sufficient consumer protection. The complaint was filed with the support of consumer groups in several European countries.

Meta Platforms loses court case in the EU over data information request

Meta Platforms’ legal challenge against EU antitrust regulators has been unsuccessful as Europe’s court upheld the European Commission’s request for information regarding its investigation into Facebook’s data and online marketplace. Meta complained that the EU antitrust regulator’s search requests were like a “fishing super trawler” as it investigated the company’s practices and had already handed over a million documents to the European Commission. Meta criticized the necessity and proportionality of the data requests.

The EU General Court dismissed the challenge. It ruled that Meta failed to prove that the request went beyond what was necessary, or that EU measures taken didn’t sufficiently protect sensitive data. It further stated that the European Union’s antitrust watchdog’s requests for information related to its investigation into Facebook’s data and online marketplace are legal. Meta could not prove that “establishing a virtual data room failed to ensure that sensitive personal data was sufficiently protected”. ‘Virtual data room’ is a name for an online repository of documents and data that is used for due diligence process, or compliance requests.

The concerned cases are T-451/20 Meta Platforms Ireland v Commission and T-452/20 Meta Platforms Ireland v Commission.
Meta Platforms now has the option to appeal to the EU’s highest court – the Court of Justice.

EU agree on new tax transparency rules for cryptocurrency service providers

The EU Finance Ministers have reached an agreement on new tax transparency rules for all cryptocurrency service providers based in the EU. The tax transparency rules for cryptocurrency transactions (DAC8) require cryptocurrency service providers to report transactions of clients residing in the EU, and it is proposed earlier in 2022. The rules are consistent with the Markets in Crypto-assets (MiCA) and transfer in funds Regulation (TFR) and follow the OECD Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework.

DAC8 serves a different purpose than MiCA. MiCA regulates and authorizes cryptocurrency service providers established in the EU. However, some operators are not covered by it, and MiCA does not enable tax authorities to collect and exchange the necessary information for taxing cryptocurrency income. DAC8 applies to all cryptocurrency service providers and operators with users in the EU. It covers businesses that provide services to EU residents, regardless of their location, and requires reporting of information for both regulated and unregulated cryptocurrency service providers and operators. As mentioned in the statement: ‘DAC8 is also consistent with the recently approved OECD Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework (CARF), as well as the amendments to its Common Reporting Standard. These standards have also been endorsed by the G20. This initiative aims at introducing greater tax transparency on crypto-assets’.’

The need for this regulation arises because effective taxation is important for public investment, services and business innovation. However, tax authorities are unable to monitor cryptocurrency profits for taxation purposes, resulting in a loss of revenue.

The Directive aims to improve UE’s ability to detect and counter tax fraud through more reporting obligations and automatic exchange of information on advance cross-border rulings used by individuals. The updated Directive also includes financial institutions’ reporting obligations regarding e-money and the central bank digital currencies (CBDC)

The new reporting rules for cryptocurrencies, e-money, and central bank digital currencies will be enforced from 1 January 2026, after the consultative opinion of the European Parliament.