European regulators have initiated various investigations into major technology companies in recent years.
Alphabet, Google’s parent company, is under investigation by the European Commission for potentially violating EU competition rules concerning the use of online content from web publishers and YouTube for artificial intelligence. In September 2024, Google contested a previous fine of 1.49 billion euros for restricting competition in online search advertising, ultimately winning the case. However, it faced a fine of 2.95 billion euros in September 2024 for anti-competitive practices in the ad tech sector and lost an earlier appeal against a 2.42 billion euro fine for favoring its price comparison service. A provisional finding from Britain’s antitrust authority revealed abuse of its dominant position in digital advertising, while France’s competition authority fined Google 250 million euros for violating EU intellectual property rules.
Amazon challenged its classification as a platform subjected to stricter EU content regulations, but the General Court rejected this request in November.
Apple was fined 98.6 million euros by Italy for alleged anti-competitive behavior in the mobile app market. In October 2025, a complaint was submitted to EU regulators over its App Store policies. Britain’s Competition and Markets Authority has designated Apple and Google as having “strategic market status,” allowing it to enforce certain regulatory demands. Apple faced a 500 million euro fine under the Digital Markets Act in April 2025 and lost an appeal regarding a regulatory assessment in Germany. It was also fined 1.84 billion euros in March 2024 for restricting competition in music streaming.
Meta is being investigated for its introduction of AI features in WhatsApp and was fined 797.72 million euros in November 2024 for benefiting Facebook Marketplace unfairly. Microsoft was charged with illegally bundling its Teams app with Office in June 2024.
The European Commission found TikTok and Meta had failed to provide adequate access to public data required by the Digital Services Act. TikTok avoided a fine by agreeing to enhance transparency. Lastly, Musk’s Grok chatbot and the social media platform X are under review for potentially distributing illegal content, with X fined 120 million euros for breaching online content regulations.
With information from Reuters
