The Dutch Consumer and Markets Authority (ACM), the watchdog in charge of checking businesses’ compliance with the Digital Markets Act (DMA), began two probes to check “whether big international tech companies” comply with the EU competition rules.
“ACM coordinates these investigations with the European Commission,” it said in its plan for 2025, published earlier this week, adding that the EU executive can use the probes to “oblige tech companies to adjust their behaviour and to impose fines.”
The ACM didn’t disclose further details about the companies and the estimated time of the investigation.
Since 10 March, the regulator has been empowered to enforce DMA compliance of companies in the Netherlands.
A Commission spokesperson confirmed to Euronews that national agencies may investigate cases falling under the DMA, but they could not “take any enforcement decision”, adding: “They would need to report to the Commission on the findings of their investigation and the appropriate follow-up would be at the discretion of the Commission.”
The DMA – which aims to regulate the gatekeeper power of the largest digital companies – became applicable in May 2023, and in September that year the EU executive designated six gatekeepers – Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, ByteDance, Meta, Microsoft. Booking.com was added in 2024.
On 23 April, the Commission fined Apple and Meta respectively €500 million and €200 million for not complying with the new EU rulebook.
It found that Apple was preventing developers from steering consumers outside its ecosystem to alternative channels for offers and content and that Meta’s “pays or consent” advertising model forced users through a binary choice to consent to give their personal data to target advertising unless they pay a subscription.
The ACM is also the Netherlands’ enforcer of the Digital Services Act (DSA): rules that aim to protect consumers against illegal content online.
Martijn Snoep, the head of the ACM, told Euronews in an interview in December that it had listed several priority areas for DSA enforcement action, and that it keeps an eye on hosting providers, hinting at possible investigations in that area too.
