But the Commission’s hands are tied. An immovable deadline for the Commission to tell Apple exactly how it should open its products and services up to rivals runs out on March 19.
Normally, this would be uncontroversial; a procedural step in getting a company to comply with a new law. But any decision to censure Big Tech under the DMA risks angering Trump, who last week called Apple “a great company.”
After that, things get serious, as the Commission starts butting up against deadlines to wrap up multiple year-long noncompliance investigations against Apple, Meta and Google.
EU officials have repeatedly promised that decisions are coming soon, at least for Apple and Meta, spurred on by complaints from users like Epic Games and Spotify, which say compliance efforts by Big Tech to date fall short.
“The Commission would face a lot of criticism if it was perceived to be taking a deliberately ‘soft’ approach for geopolitical reasons,” says Zach Meyers, director of research at the Centre on Regulation in Europe think tank.
Mindful of fraught geopolitics, the executive’s leadership has sought in recent weeks to smooth over tensions by insisting that its approach is not anti-American. “[The DMA] does not target U.S. companies,” European commissioners Teresa Ribera and Henna Virkkunen wrote to a U.S. lawmaker earlier this month, stressing that the EU’s aim “is to ensure compliance — not to issue fines.”