European Regulators Intensify Crackdown on Big Tech as 2025 Closes
By Cygnus | 22 Dec 2025
European regulators are closing the year with an unprecedented surge in enforcement, deploying the full weight of the Digital Markets Act (DMA) and Digital Services Act (DSA) to reshape the global technology landscape. Over the past twelve months, the European Commission and national watchdogs have pivoted from theoretical oversight to multi-billion-euro penalties and structural mandates.
Google: AI Scrutiny and AdTech Battles
Alphabet’s Google remains at the epicenter of European scrutiny. On December 8, 2025, the European Commission launched a formal antitrust investigation into Google’s use of publisher and YouTube content to train its generative AI systems, including AI Overviews and Gemini. The Commission is specifically examining whether Google scraping such content without appropriate compensation or an "opt-out" mechanism breaches EU competition rules. This follows a stinging €2.95 billion fine imposed in September over anti-competitive practices in its adtech segment.
While Google successfully overturned a legacy €1.49 billion AdSense fine in late 2024, it has failed to stop the momentum of new cases. France’s Autorité de la concurrence recently upheld a €250 million penalty for intellectual property breaches, and the UK’s CMA has provisionally designated Google’s advertising arm as having "Strategic Market Status" (SMS), allowing for even tighter oversight in 2026.
Apple: Record Fines and Forced Openness
Apple faces a "perfect storm" of regulatory setbacks. Today, December 22, 2025, Italy’s competition authority (AGCM) fined Apple €98.6 million for abusing its dominant position in the mobile app market. The regulator cited Apple’s App Tracking Transparency (ATT) policy as being detrimental to third-party developers while giving Apple’s own services an unfair advantage.
This comes on the heels of the European Commission’s €1.84 billion fine in 2024 for music streaming anti-steering rules. In April 2025, the pressure intensified when the EU levied a separate €500 million non-compliance penalty under the DMA—the first of its kind—for Apple’s refusal to fully dismantle its controversial "Core Technology Fee" structure.
The AI Frontier: Meta and Amazon
Regulators have opened a new front in Artificial Intelligence. On December 4, 2025, the EU launched an antitrust probe into Meta’s new WhatsApp policies. The investigation assesses whether Meta is blocking third-party AI providers from the WhatsApp Business Solution to favor its own Meta AI assistant.
Meanwhile, Amazon faced a decisive defeat in the General Court, which rejected its challenge against its "Very Large Online Platform" (VLOP) designation under the DSA. This cements Amazon's obligation to adhere to the strictest transparency audits and content moderation standards in the bloc.
Historic Firsts for X and Microsoft
Elon Musk’s X became the first platform to receive a formal financial penalty under the DSA. On December 5, 2025, the Commission fined X €120 million for "deceptive design" regarding its blue checkmarks and for failing to provide verified researchers with access to public data. The Commission noted that the "verified" badge misled users by suggesting accounts had been meaningfully vetted when they had merely been purchased.
Microsoft also remains under pressure following charges regarding the illegal bundling of Teams with Office 365. With a final ruling expected in early 2026, the company is reportedly negotiating a settlement to avoid a potential fine of up to 10% of global turnover.
Summary
The "Brussels Effect" has reached a fever pitch in 2025. Through a combination of the DMA (targeting market gatekeepers) and the DSA (targeting content and transparency), Europe has moved beyond fines to demand fundamental changes in business models. The focus has now shifted toward AI sovereignty, ensuring that Big Tech cannot leverage historical data dominance to stifle the next generation of competitors.
FAQs
Q1: Why was X fined specifically under the DSA?
X was fined €120 million in December 2025 for using "deceptive design" (dark patterns) in its blue checkmark system and failing to meet transparency requirements for its advertising repository and researcher data access.
Q2: What is the core issue in the Google AI investigation?
Opened on December 8, 2025, the probe examines whether Google is unfairly scraping copyrighted publisher and YouTube content to train its AI models without offering adequate compensation or a viable "opt-out" mechanism.
Q3: Why was Apple fined in Italy today?
On December 22, 2025, Italian authorities fined Apple €98.6 million for imposing "restrictive privacy policies" via its App Tracking Transparency (ATT) prompt that unfairly penalized third-party app developers.
Q4: What was the first fine issued under the Digital Markets Act (DMA)?
The first non-compliance fine under the DMA was a €500 million penalty issued to Apple in April 2025 regarding its mobile app distribution policies.
Q5: How is the EU regulating AI access on WhatsApp?
The EU opened a probe on December 4, 2025, to see if Meta is illegally blocking competing AI conversational assistants from using the WhatsApp Business API while keeping the platform open for Meta AI.
