Six digital and human rights organisations have filed an antitrust complaint in the European Union (EU) against Alphabet, the parent company of Google.
According to a Reuters report, the complaint urges EU regulators to investigate whether Alphabet complies with the Digital Markets Act (DMA), particularly regarding the ease of uninstalling software applications.
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The DMA, which came into effect two years ago, establishes a set of rules for major technology companies, such as Alphabet, to limit their market dominance and expand consumer options.
The organisations who filed the complaint include ARTICLE 19, European Digital Rights (EDRi), Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE), Gesellschaft fur Freiheitsrechte (GFF), Homo Digitalis, and Vrijschrift.org. They alleged that Alphabet has not adhered to the DMA’s stipulations.
The groups claim that Alphabet has structured its Android operating system in a way that obscures the option for users to disable its pre-installed applications.
“Alphabet has designed its Core Platform Service Android in a way to hide from end users the possibility to disable its own pre-installed gatekeeper apps.
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By GlobalData“What is more, Alphabet goes to great length to scare away end users who have found that possibility against all odds of actually disabling Google’s pre-installed apps,” the news agency quoted the organisations as saying in the complaint.
They urged the European Commission to conduct an investigation into these practices. However, Alphabet has denied the allegations.
A Google spokesperson told Reuters: “It is easy to uninstall apps on Android devices, so this complaint does not represent a genuine user concern.”
The European Commission has acknowledged receipt of the complaint and is currently evaluating it through its standard assessment procedures.
Google is also reportedly dealing with another antitrust complaint in the EU filed by a group of independent publishers over its AI Overviews feature. The complaint accuses Google of exploiting its market dominance in the online search sector.
