News The EU wants Apple, Google and Microsoft to clamp down on online scams

[News]

The European Union has asked Apple, Google and Microsoft to explain how they police online financial scams, stepping up enforcement of the Digital Services Act (DSA), as first reported by the Financial Times. Formal information requests were also sent to Booking Holdings, the owner of Booking.com, regarding how the company handles fake accommodation listings. Likewise, regulators will be probing fake banking apps in Apple’s App Store and Google Play. Additionally, they will be taking a close look at fake search results in Google search and Microsoft's Bing.

Speaking with the Financial Times, EU tech chief Henna Virkkunen said criminal activity is increasingly moving online and platforms must do more to detect and prevent illegal content. Virkkunen said that financial losses from online fraud exceed €4 billion a year (around $4.7 billion) across the EU, and that the rise of AI has made detecting these scams more difficult.

The four companies will be given the chance to respond to these information requests, but under the DSA companies can face penalties up to 6 percent of their global annual revenue for failing to adequately combat illegal content and disinformation.


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Earlier this year Apple and Meta were fined around $570 million and $228 million, respectively, after the European Commission found them in violation of the Digital Markets Act (DMA), though both companies are appealing the fines. The DMA is a set of rules governing online platforms that was adopted alongside the DSA in 2022.

European fines on American companies, particularly a recent $3.5 billion fine levied on Google for antitrust violations, have drawn the attention and ire of President Donald Trump. The president has threatened a trade probe over what he views as "discriminatory actions" against American tech companies.