iot
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Europe eyes Apple, Amazon, Google warily over IoT competition

"Siri, where might competition cases go next?"

A Google Home speaker on a table

European antitrust regulators are laying out preliminary concerns about competition in IoT, and signaling they could feed future cases.

Photo: Thomas Kolnowski/Unsplash

The European Commission found potential competition concerns in a report on smart devices and virtual assistants that named Apple, Amazon and Google as the leading companies in the sector.

The preliminary findings, released on Wednesday, "could lead to new competition cases being opened in the future," said Margrethe Vestager, the commission's executive vice president, in a statement.

The commission and countries in the bloc have often been at the forefront of antitrust enforcement in a variety of digital markets.

Vestager cited "concerns about attempts to restrict the number of voice assistants accessible on smart devices" and limits by producers on installing second voice assistants in addition to Apple's Siri, Amazon's Alexa and others.

She also mentioned the possibility that voice assistant providers "promote their own services or the services of third-parties of their choice" and worried over the amount of data they collect.

 Ben Brody

Ben Brody (@ BenBrodyDC) is a senior reporter at Protocol focusing on how Congress, courts and agencies affect the online world we live in. He formerly covered tech policy and lobbying (including antitrust, Section 230 and privacy) at Bloomberg News, where he previously reported on the influence industry, government ethics and the 2016 presidential election. Before that, Ben covered business news at CNNMoney and AdAge, and all manner of stories in and around New York. He still loves appearing on the New York news radio he grew up with.

competition margrethe vestager google amazon apple iot
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