{"id":135226,"date":"2025-07-24T18:37:08","date_gmt":"2025-07-24T16:37:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/homodigitalis.gr\/posts\/135226\/"},"modified":"2025-09-07T18:37:26","modified_gmt":"2025-09-07T16:37:26","slug":"we-filed-a-complaint-against-alphabet-before-the-european-commission-under-the-provisions-of-the-dma-together-with-five-organizations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/homodigitalis.gr\/en\/posts\/135226\/","title":{"rendered":"We filed a complaint against Alphabet before the European Commission under the provisions of the DMA, together with five organizations."},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wpb-content-wrapper\"><p>[vc_row][vc_column column_width_use_pixel=&#8221;yes&#8221; gutter_size=&#8221;3&#8243; overlay_alpha=&#8221;50&#8243; shift_x=&#8221;0&#8243; shift_y=&#8221;0&#8243; shift_y_down=&#8221;0&#8243; z_index=&#8221;0&#8243; medium_width=&#8221;0&#8243; mobile_width=&#8221;0&#8243; uncode_shortcode_id=&#8221;200244&#8243; column_width_pixel=&#8221;746&#8243;][vc_column_text uncode_shortcode_id=&#8221;160342&#8243;]<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"53\" data-end=\"325\"><strong data-start=\"53\" data-end=\"323\">European Digital Rights, ARTICLE 19, Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE), Gesellschaft f\u00fcr Freiheitsrechte e.V., Vrijschrift.org, and Homo Digitalis filed a formal complaint against Alphabet Inc. under the Digital Markets Act (DMA) before the European Commission.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p data-start=\"327\" data-end=\"370\">Despite the DMA\u2019s clear gatekeeper rules:<\/p>\n<ul data-start=\"371\" data-end=\"842\">\n<li data-start=\"371\" data-end=\"599\">\n<p data-start=\"373\" data-end=\"599\">On Android, users still cannot truly uninstall Google\u2019s pre-installed apps; they can only disable them, which leaves them on the device. Yet Alphabet misleads users by claiming this is the same as removing an app. It is not.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li data-start=\"600\" data-end=\"842\">\n<p data-start=\"602\" data-end=\"842\">The disable option is buried deep in the settings and, when users do find it, Android displays vague and intimidating warnings that discourage them from switching to alternative apps, making it harder to move away from Google\u2019s ecosystem.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><\/p>\n<p data-start=\"844\" data-end=\"975\">We are facing a textbook case of <strong data-start=\"877\" data-end=\"897\">deceptive design<\/strong>, which restricts user choice and reinforces Alphabet\u2019s gatekeeper position.<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p data-start=\"977\" data-end=\"1139\">With our complaint, we call on the European Commission to investigate Alphabet\u2019s practices and order the company to fully respect end-user rights under the DMA.<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1141\" data-end=\"1196\">You can read our complaint on EDRi\u2019s website <a href=\"https:\/\/edri.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Joint-DMA-complaint-Alphabet-for-publication.pdf\"><strong>here<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[vc_row][vc_column column_width_use_pixel=&#8221;yes&#8221; gutter_size=&#8221;3&#8243; overlay_alpha=&#8221;50&#8243; shift_x=&#8221;0&#8243; shift_y=&#8221;0&#8243; shift_y_down=&#8221;0&#8243; z_index=&#8221;0&#8243; medium_width=&#8221;0&#8243; mobile_width=&#8221;0&#8243; uncode_shortcode_id=&#8221;200244&#8243; column_width_pixel=&#8221;746&#8243;][vc_column_text uncode_shortcode_id=&#8221;160342&#8243;] European Digital Rights, ARTICLE 19, Free Software [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":135221,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[91,87],"tags":[478,620,707,818,1140,1141],"class_list":["post-135226","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-actions","category-reports","tag-strategic-litigation","tag-european-union-en","tag-dma-en","tag-european-commission-en","tag-1140","tag-1141"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/homodigitalis.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135226","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/homodigitalis.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/homodigitalis.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/homodigitalis.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/homodigitalis.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=135226"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/homodigitalis.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135226\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":135228,"href":"https:\/\/homodigitalis.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135226\/revisions\/135228"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/homodigitalis.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/135221"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/homodigitalis.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=135226"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/homodigitalis.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=135226"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/homodigitalis.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=135226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}