Commission warns Alphabet and Apple they're breaking EU digital rules

Euronews

19-03-2025

The German foreign ministry has updated its travel advice for Germans travelling to the US after three German nationals were denied entry and detained as they tried to enter.
"A criminal conviction in the United States, false information regarding the purpose of stay, or even a slight overstay of the visa upon entry or exit can lead to arrest, detention, and deportation upon entry or exit," information on the ministry's website now explicitly says.
Advice for travellers now also warns that possessing an electronic system for travel authorisation (ESTA) document – the automated system that determines the eligibility of visitors to travel to the US under the visa waiver programme – does not automatically guarantee entry into the US.
"The final decision on whether a person can enter the United States rests with the American border authorities. But this is no surprise; it is the same in Germany," a ministry spokesperson told German daily Der Spiegel.
The foreign ministry was also keen to point out that the updated guidance doesn't constitute a travel warning to the US.
The updated travel advice comes after the foreign ministry said on Monday it was probing the case of three of its citizens who had been denied entry and placed in detention as they tried to enter the US.
"The Federal Foreign Office is aware of three cases in which German citizens were unable to enter the United States and were placed in deportation detention upon entry," a foreign ministry spokesperson said.
Among those detained was Fabian Schmidt, 34, a legal permanent US resident. According to US outlet WGBH, he was detained at an airport in Boston before being transferred to a detention facility in Rhode Island.
Schmidt's mother, Astrid Senior, claimed in an interview that her son was "violently interrogated" at the airport before being stripped naked and forced into a cold shower by two officials.
The two other nationals affected were Jessica Brösche, a 29-year-old tattoo artist from Berlin, and Lucas Sielaff, 25, from Saxony-Anhalt. Both have since been sent back to Germany.
Brösche had attempted to enter the US from Tijuana in Mexico while travelling with her friend, a US citizen.
According to the online fundraiser set up to fund her return, authorities originally told her she would be detained for several days, but that what ensued instead was an "alarming sequence of events" with Brösche transferred and kept at the Otay Mesa Detention centre for more than six weeks.
Brösche's friends alleged she was put in solitary confinement for nine days during her ordeal.
According to ABC 10News, San Diego CoreCivic, the company that owns the detention centre where Brösche was held, denied those claims.
Sielaff returned to Germany in early March after two weeks in detention his girlfriend, Lennon Tyler, told Swiss daily Tages-Anzeiger. He had entered the US on a tourist visa and visited Mexico for a short trip.
Germans who have a valid tourist visa to the US are generally allowed to travel visa-free for up to 90 days, according to the US embassy website in Germany.
Green card holders are generally allowed to travel abroad and re-enter the US after stays lasting less than six consecutive months, according to the US government.
Wednesday's decisions by the European Commission in a number of cases involving compliance of US big tech with the European digital legislation are unlikely to improve relations between the US and the EU.
A year after launching an investigation, the Commission has concluded that Alphabet's failure to let developers steer consumers outside its app stores to other offers means it does not comply with the Digital Market Act (DMA).
According to the Commission, the US giant does not allow any form of communication between developers and consumers and dissuades consumers from leaving Alphabet's environment with a warning message.
In a separate investigation the EU executive found that Google was self-preferencing its services such as shopping, hotels and travel, giving its own offers prominence in the search results over third parties' services, which is forbidden by the DMA.
If Alphabet does not abide by the Commission's findings by offering a compliance solution, it risks a fine of up to 10% of its global annual turnover.
In a separate decision on Wednesday the Commission gave Apple two years to enable the operability of devices from other brands with its iPhones to comply with the DMA.
Apple was accused in June of breaching the DMA for preventing developers from steering consumers outside its ecosystem. If the tech giant has not offered solutions to ensure its devices work with third-party smartwatches, headphones, and virtual reality headsets within two more years, non-compliance action could ensue.
Apple is also under a non-compliance investigation launched a year ago under the DMA whose conclusion should be presented by the EU enforcer in the coming weeks. In this case, the Commission should decide whether Apple's measures prevent users from freely choosing browsers outside Apple's ecosystem.
A last investigation targets the tech giant's new contractual terms for developers to access alternative app stores and the possibility to offer an app via an alternative distribution channel. The result of the investigation should be known by June.
EU probes into US tech giants have irked US President Donald Trump and US Congressional lawmakers.
In February, two members of the US House of representatives sent a letter to Commission Vice-presidents Henna Virkkunen and Teresa Ribera arguing that the DMA was directed against US companies and that the fines incurred were equivalent to taxes.
Online users are claiming the European Union has banned Romania's ultranationalist candidate Călin Georgescu from competing in the country's presidential elections.
In one post on X, a German far-right political activist blamed the ban on 'EU-dictatocracy'. Another user alleged Europe was forbidding candidates from running in elections.
Multiple accounts also claim to show Romanians protesting against alleged EU corruption.
But while hundreds of protesters took to the streets after Georgescu was disqualified from the presidential race, the crowds did not come close to near the hundreds or hundreds of thousands displayed in online videos.
In fact, a Euroverify reverse image search revealed the images come from anti-corruption protests in Serbia, not Romania.
Although Georgescu won the first round of Romania's presidential elections in November, the results were annulled by the country's constitutional court.
Declassified intelligence reports revealed a Russian-backed campaign to influence voters on social media, with a strong focus on TikTok.
This led Georgescu, who is a fierce NATO and EU critic, to be dubbed the "TikTok Messiah".
This wave of online disinformation comes after a ruling was issued in March by Romania's Constitutional Court — and not by the EU.
Romania's highest court upheld the decision to reject Georgescu's candidacy in the election rerun scheduled for May.
Prior to this, Romania's Central Electoral Commission had suspended Georgescu's candidacy application. This body has the power to reject candidates who do not meet the required legal conditions to hold presidential office.
Candidacies are assessed on a case-by-case basis, meaning that Georgescu could try his luck at a future election.
In mid-March, the body also suspended MEP Diana Sosoaca, the leader of the ultra-nationalist S.O.S Romania party known for her pro-Russia views, from participating in the presidential race.
In a Facebook live streamed during the ruling, Sosoaca told her followers that "this proves the Americans, Jews and the European Union have plotted to rig the Romanian election before it has begun".
The European Commission has taken measures to tackle foreign interference in the Romanian elections, but it has not banned candidates.
In December, the commission announced the launch of legal proceedings against TikTok, due to a 'suspected breach' of the Digital Services Act.
The platform is accused of failing to mitigate risks which threatened the integrity of Romania's November elections.