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The EU survey asks whether Apple, Amazon, and other giants are stifling the Internet of Things
The European Union competition watchdog examines that Apple, Twitter, Amazon or other firms are building monopolies for their digital assistants and smart home devices. EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager launched a report on the Internet of Things industry aimed at ensuring that consumers are not trapped into a single environment. "If big firms misuse their control, they will easily drive economies past the tipping point where competition is a monopoly," Vestager said in a statement.
Vestager raised concerns about products such as Amazon's Alexa Assistant, which combines the company's extensive retail, hardware and data collection operations. "Voice assistants and smart devices can collect a vast amount of information about our habits. And there is a possibility that big corporations will be able to manipulate the data gathered from these tools, "she added. While Silicon Valley tech companies appear to be the biggest targets, Vestager mentioned Magenta's voice assistant to Deutsche Telekom.
Powerful companies can favor preferred services and restrict interoperability, making it more difficult to buy a competitor 's product. "The appliances in our homes don't need to be connected to each other right now.
We feel free to buy the best smart speaker that we can find on the market, without worrying whether it will work with our smart lighting system. And we want to keep it that way. "Sonos, an audio company in the United States, sued Google after alleged disputes over building products that integrated both Google and Amazon voice assistants.
The EU has conducted a number of previous technology antitrust investigations, including investigations into Google's acquisition of Fitbit wearables and Amazon's use of third-party vendor data.
Apparently, this sonde is in its early stages. The European Commission is sending 400 questionnaires to Smart Home, Wearable Technology and Voice Assistant companies to gather information on data collection and interoperability. It plans to prepare a preliminary report by the spring of 2021, with the possibility of enforcement action thereafter.
