The European Union is escalating its antitrust battle with Big Tech, opening investigations into whether Apple, Google, and Meta (formerly Facebook) are fully complying with the bloc’s landmark Digital Markets Act (DMA). This aggressive move by the EU’s competition watchdog signals rising tensions with Silicon Valley over the implementation of the new rules aimed at curbing the dominance of gatekeepers in the digital economy.

On Tuesday, the European Commission announced it is launching five separate investigations to scrutinize various practices by the tech titans that it suspects may violate the DMA’s requirements for fair competition and open markets. In the crosshairs are Apple’s restrictions around third-party app stores and browsers, Google’s alleged self-preferencing in search results, Meta’s use of a “pay or consent” model for ad targeting, and more.

“We suspect that the suggested solutions put forward by the three companies do not fully comply with the DMA,” EU antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager declared. “We will now investigate the companies’ compliance with the DMA, to ensure open and contestable digital markets in Europe.”

The investigations mark a new phase in the EU’s crackdown on Big Tech, coming just weeks after the landmark DMA rules came into force for gatekeepers designated by Brussels. The law imposes a sweeping set of operational changes and prohibitions, from allowing users to uninstall pre-loaded apps and app stores to banning favoring a gatekeeper’s own services over rivals.

Vestager and EU Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton now aim to ensure the tech giants are truly abiding by the spirit and letter of the DMA, not just making halfhearted attempts at box-ticking compliance. “We are not convinced that the solutions by Alphabet, Apple and Meta respect their obligations for a fairer and more open digital space for European citizens and businesses,” Breton warned.

At the heart of the probes are disagreements over how the gatekeepers have chosen to conform to the new regime. Apple, for instance, says it is playing by the rules by allowing alternative app stores and sideloading. However, it has introduced a controversial new fee structure that critics like Spotify and Epic Games argue is merely “malicious compliance” designed to dissuade developers from distributing apps outside Apple’s tightly controlled ecosystem.

Similarly, Meta’s system of offering an ad-free paid subscription tier for Facebook and Instagram – a model it frames as expanding user choice – has raised eyebrows among regulators concerned about the “binary choice” put to consumers.

For their part, the tech companies insist they are operating in good faith and meeting their DMA obligations. Statements from Apple, Google, Meta and Amazon all underscored their commitment to working constructively with Brussels while defending their approaches.

Yet with the threat of penalties as high as 20% of global revenue for repeated violations, the companies have a powerful incentive to get it right. As Vestager bluntly put it: “Should our investigation conclude that there is lack of full compliance with the DMA, gatekeepers could face heavy fines.”

The upcoming year of investigations and legal wrangling will be a critical test for the DMA, showing whether the landmark rules can truly rein in the tech giants’ dominance or will devolve into a morass of vague compliance and endless challenges. The outcome will resonate far beyond Europe, as authorities worldwide look to the EU’s assertive new model for disciplining digital monopolies.