EU regulators to probe voice assistants Alexa & Siri. EU competition regulators are seeking information from 400 companies to establish issues for voice assistants such as Alexa and Siri. And other internet-connected devices that could lead to antitrust cases.
The European Commission has initiated similar inquiries in the past into e-commerce, pharmaceuticals, financial services and energy that led to cases against companies and eventually hefty fines.
Amazon‘s Alexa, Apple‘s Siri and Alphabet’s Google Assistant are among the most popular voice assistant devices.
“It sends an important message to powerful operators in these market. That we are watching them. And that they need to do business in line with competition rules”. European Competition Commission Margrethe Vestager told a news conference.
The EU executive said its interest was prompted by large amounts. Which was of personal data involved in “internet of things” (IoT) devices. And it wanted to make sure market players did not misuse their control of such data. To hurt competition or thwart rivals.
“Interoperability is of the essence if we want to make this market accessible,” Vestager said.
Moreover, the companies can be fined up to 10% of their global turnover. Also for breaching EU antitrust rules. However, Vestager, has taken stringent steps in the tech industry through enforcement directives, on Apple, Amazon, Facebook in recent years.
The number of ‘smart home’ customers using Alexa in India has grown sixfold in the last 12 months. With the recent launch of JioFiber, this number is likely to increase in the near years.
