Members of the European Parliament accused the Commission on Thursday of weak enforcement of its landmark Digital Markets Act, citing what they called inadequate fines for Meta and Apple and warning that pressure from “third countries” may be influencing its approach.
Although the Parliament resolution does not name the US directly, of the list of six companies mentioned in the press release, four are Silicon Valley tech giants: Microsoft, Google, Apple, Amazon. The other two are Booking and Tiktok.
The resolution approved by the European Parliament calls on the Commission to conclude “ongoing non-compliance proceedings” under the Digital Markets Act (DMA) “without undue delay” and criticizes the “modest” fines imposed on Meta and Apple, arguing that “effective and proportionate fines are essential to ensure deterrence.”
The vote, held by a show of hands, came just a day after the Commission published its first review of the law, declaring the DMA “fit for purpose” and saying it has had a “positive impact” — a stark contrast to Parliament’s far more critical assessment
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Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) also warned that “new challenges posed by generative AI and cloud services need to be addressed” and underlined that political interference should not compromise the EU’s sovereignty and autonomy to enforce its own rules.
“The Commission should make full use of the DMA’s enforcement instruments (including regulatory dialogue, investigations, non-compliance proceedings, and fines) to prevent gatekeepers, regardless of their place of establishment, from bypassing the law,” said the resolution.
Meanwhile, the Commission’s review concluded that the DMA “remains relevant and well-adapted to the evolving digital environment,” while conceding there is still “significant untapped potential” to fully deliver on its goals of fairness, contestability and harmonisation.
Consumer rights
Despite the criticism, the Digital Markets Act has expanded consumer choice, said Agustín Reyna, director general of the European Consumer Organisation.
Consumers can now choose, for example, “which browser to set as their default on iPhones or exchange messages with WhatsApp users from alternative messaging services,” he said. But large technology companies are still too often circumventing the rules, preventing consumers from fully benefiting from the law.
Reyna said the European Commission should both strengthen enforcement and expand its focus to emerging areas such as artificial intelligence and cloud services to ensure consumers can fully reap the Digital Markets Act’s benefits. He also criticized the Commission for not extending interoperability rules to social media platforms, saying consumers could benefit from being able to interact across rival networks.
How the DMA works
The DMA designates the largest technology platforms as “gatekeepers” and imposes obligations aimed at preventing unfair practices before they occur. Gatekeepers have been required to comply with the law since 2024, and the Commission issued its first non-compliance fines against Meta and Apple in April 2025.
In November 2025, the Commission opened investigations into Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure to assess whether their cloud computing services should also be designated as gatekeepers. Lawmakers also flagged a series of ongoing concerns, including Google’s alleged self-preferencing practices, TikTok’s consent screens using behavioural techniques to secure user consent, changes to default settings and barriers to accessing competing services by Microsoft, and the continued use of prohibited parity clauses by Booking.
