According to the European Commission, Siri, Alexa or Google Assistant pose a potential threat to competition in the European digital market. Regulators will continue to monitor developments.
These voice assistants from the workshop of Apple, Amazon and Google are by far the most popular of the three devices of this type in the European Union. This has attracted the attention of the European Commission, which has researched the market for voice assistants and other Internet-connected devices in the past year. “We have noticed signs of some practices that we know very well, which may lead to a reduction in competition and the emergence of gatekeepers,” said Margarethe Vestager, European Commissioner for Competition.
According to her, the preliminary results of the study show that the concerns of the European Commission are shared by many other market players. While Vestager said it was too early to draw any conclusions that could lead to regulation or even sanctions, the findings were said to be the subject of a 12-week public consultation and the final opinion will appear in the Commission’s final report to be published in the first half of next year. An Amazon spokesman denies the commissioner’s concerns, and representatives of Apple and Google have not yet responded, according to Reuters.
Chee, Reuters
