The European Union has taken antitrust action against Google and Apple.

The European Commission (the EU's executive arm) announced on Wednesday that it was launching antitrust charges against Google and ordering Apple to take steps to comply with the Digital Markets Act. The EU is alleging that Alphabet, Google's parent company, has violated the Digital Markets Act by engaging in "self-preferencing" behaviour, which favours its own services at the expense of competitors. This includes Google search prioritising Alphabet's own services over those of rivals, and Google Play blocking app developers from steering consumers towards other app stores. Google responded by saying that the EU's actions could harm consumers and businesses, and gave examples of changes it had made to comply with the Digital Markets Act that had increased costs for consumers. The Commission issued guidance to Apple, ordering it to take specific steps to comply with interoperability obligations in EU competition rules, which allow third parties to develop innovative products and services on its platform. Apple responded by saying that the measures added red tape and slowed down innovation in Europe, and forced it to give new features for free to companies that did not have to comply with the same rules. The Digital Markets Act is aimed at lowering barriers to competition in the technology sector, in response to the rise of tech giants such as Google, Apple, Amazon, Meta and Microsoft. The Trump administration had warned the EU against over-regulating US tech giants, and threatened to impose tariffs on the EU in response to what it said was its "ransomware" of US tech companies.