The European Commission (EC) warned about the growing market power of Apple’s Siri, Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa, flagging concerns the voice assistants were being used to promote anti-competitive practices.
In conclusions issued following a year-long investigation into consumer IoT sector, the EC predicted revenue from smart home appliances would double between 2020 and 2025 to €40 billion.
The Commission sought input from more than 200 companies of various sizes in Europe, Asia and the US into the consumer IoT market. EVP Margrethe Vestager explained in a statement it commenced the probe due to the fast development of the sector, with the EC seeking to ensure “all firms in the growing sector” had the “opportunity to innovate and bring new products and services to market”.
However, Vestager said the EC saw early indications some practices may lead to the emergence of gatekeepers and, if confirmed, these “could lead to new competition cases being opened in the future”.
Concerns
The Commission found operating systems and voice assistants played a “central role” interconnecting different smart devices and services, with respondents flagging the potential for providers of the services “to engage in behaviours that negatively affect competition”.
In the EU, the regulator said Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa and Apple’s Siri were the leaders, while all three also operated the main OS for smart home and wearable devices.
The enquiry raised four main concerns, Vestager said: attempts to restrict the number of voice assistants accessible on smart devices; potentially taking over direct relationships with users by implementing default settings to give prominence to specific services; data collection; and interoperability.
Vestager invited all businesses, interested citizens and stakeholders to share feedback on its preliminary findings, all of which will provide “guidance” and feed into its regulatory work.
“We must make sure that our digital markets, including the consumer IoT, are open and fair for consumers, with room for businesses of all sizes to innovate and grow.”
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