Apple May Face $26 Billion In Fines With EU Investigation On Voice Assistant Siri

Apple seems to be caught up in a checklist by European Union Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager. The Cupertino tech giant just emerged victorious out of an ongoing lawsuit blaming it for not paying $13.9 billion in taxes on its profits in Ireland from 1991 to 2005. Before it could celebrate, it seems like it might be looking down the barrel once again.

This time, Vestager might be going for Apple¡¯s voice to the world - Siri. In fact, Apple is not the only one possibly facing an investigation for its voice assistant. Vestager is looking for dirt on any voice assistant from the likes of Apple, Google and Amazon that could help her build antitrust charges against the services.

For this, Vestager is looking for information from 400 companies for any issues with voice assistants including Apple's Siri, Google's Assistant, and Amazon's Alexa. If any malpractice is found, possibly on the context of data gathering and storage, the tech majors could be facing a massive antitrust charge.

Reports indicate that the penalty might stretch to $26 billion.

That is ten percent of Apple¡¯s global revenue last year - $260 billion.

EU Watchdog

Apple Siri (Representative Image: Reuters)

A report by PhoneArena hints at the reason behind the new investigation. As per the report, Vestager told a news conference that by seeking information from 400 companies, ¡°it gives Apple, Amazon, and Google the message that the EU is watching them closely to make sure that they toe the line.¡±

According to the commissioner, the UK is interested in investigating the voice assistants because of the ¡°large amount of consumer data used in ¡®Internet of Things¡¯ (IoT) devices.¡± She said that the EU wants to ensure such voice assistants don't use their control of this data to ¡°break rules, prevent competition, and harm rivals.¡±

"Interoperability is of the essence if we want to make this market accessible," Vestager added.

At this stage, however, there is no guarantee that Vestager and her team will find any issues with the voice assistants that require a legal proceeding. For now, the investigation is expected to take some time with no promise of a result.