Overview   News

EU Member States spent 90% of their State aid in 2024 to support EU priorities, according to the European Commission's 2025 State aid Scoreboard, published today. While overall spending dropped to €168.23 billion in 2024 from €203.35 billion in 2023, Member States channeled more funds towards supporting key EU prorities, such as environmental protection, energy, research, development and innovation and regional development. At the same time, crisis aid measures related to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and to the COVID-19 pandemic continued to phase out.

The European Commission published a summary and the individual contributions received in response to the consultation on the ongoing review of the Digital Markets Act (DMA). 
The assessment of these contributions will feed into the Commission's review report to be presented by 3 May 2026 to the European Parliament, the Council, and the European Economic and Social Committee. The regular review of the DMA every three years is a legal requirement, mandated by the regulation itself, to ensure that the DMA meets its objectives and maintains its effectiveness in the evolving landscape of digital markets.

The European Commission acknowledges Meta's undertaking to offer users in the EU an alternative choice of Facebook and Instagram services that would show them less personalised ads, to comply with the Digital Markets Act (DMA). This is the first time that such a choice is offered on Meta's social networks. Meta will give users the effective choice between: consenting to share all their data and seeing fully personalised advertising, and opting to share less personal data for an experience with more limited personalised advertising. Meta will present these new options to users in the EU in January 2026.

The European Commission published the contributions received in response to the public consultation on the review of the EU Merger Guidelines. The package includes a Summary of the feedback, along with an Overview of the main trends identified in the replies to the General and In-depth Consultations.
The key opinion trends will be debated during the interactive technical stakeholder workshops. Furthermore, a dedicated conference “Shaping the Future of EU Merger Control” will take place early next year.

The European Commission appointed Yves-Alexandre de Montjoye as Chief Technology Officer (CTO) in DG COMP.
Professor de Montjoye, a Belgian national, currently serves as Professor of Applied Mathematics and Computer Science at Imperial College London where he heads the Computational Privacy Group. He brings outstanding academic and practical expertise in AI and other advanced technologies, along with extensive experience in assessing their policy and regulatory impact.
A very warm welcome to him!

The European Commission has launched a call for evidence and a public consultation to seek input on the evaluation of the 2009 Broadcasting Communication. This Communication sets out State aid rules for public service broadcasting. The goal of the initiative is to collect views and experiences from stakeholders on how the Broadcasting Communication has worked since its last revision in 2009 and whether it continues to meet its objectives. The Commission is also seeking to identify any challenges stakeholders may have encountered in the application or interpretation of the rules.

The European Commission has found that the State aid rules on guarantees are still relevant as they increase predictability and legal certainty, but that some improvements and simplification are necessary. In a Staff Working Document (‘SWD') published today, the Commission finds that there can be improvements regarding estimating aid amounts, complexity for SMEs, and passing-on of risk benefits.

The European Commission and the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) have launched a public consultation to gather feedback on draft guidelines on the interplay between the Digital Markets Act (DMA) and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). 

DG Competition has once again received a FIVE-star rating in the 25th edition of Global Competition Review (GCR)’s annual Rating Enforcement Survey, one of only two enforcement bodies worldwide to be awarded the top five-star rating — alongside Germany’s Federal Cartel Office.
The GCR report underlines: “The European Commission remains the most influential antitrust authority in the world, setting global benchmarks through both its enforcement record and the breadth of its policy initiatives.”

The European Commission has today launched a public consultation on the revision of the State aid rules to help Member States with affordable housing. This revision of the services of general economic interest (‘SGEI') rules will address challenges related to housing affordability that go beyond social housing. The goal is to allow EU countries to support affordable housing in a faster and simpler way, by revising SGEI Decision 2012/21/EU. This will contribute to the Commission's efforts to address European citizens' housing needs, which will also include a proposal for a European affordable housing plan.

The European Commission has today launched a public consultation, inviting all interested parties to comment on drafts of a revised Technology Transfer Block Exemption Regulation (‘TTBER') and revised Guidelines on the application of Article 101 of the Treaty to technology transfer agreements.

You can now explore the timeline mapping all competition policy revisions and updates. Over the past months, DG Competition has launched a major revision of the rules to ensure they keep pace with fast-changing markets and remain fit for the technological, societal, and geopolitical challenges of our time. This fresh approach aims to support European companies to innovate, compete and lead globally – while contributing to sustainability, social fairness and security.
You can check the below section "Public consultations" to discover the calls currently open for your participation.

Today, Director-General of DG CNECT Roberto Viola and Director-General of DG COMP Olivier Guersent, representing the European Commission services responsible for the implementation of the Digital Markets Act (DMA), have signed a first of its kind Cooperation Arrangement with the Japan Fair Trade Commission, responsible for the implementation of Japan’s Mobile Software Competition Act, represented by Secretary-General Hiroo Iwanari. The Arrangement is signed in the context of the EU-Japan Digital Partnership.

The European Commission has today launched a public consultation on a draft of the Guidelines on the implementation of the Foreign Subsidies Regulation (‘FSR Guidelines'). Interested parties have eight weeks to comment on the Guidelines, until 12 September 2025.

The European Commission is organizing a series of compliance workshops with interested third parties to receive their views on specific issues and questions that may arise in relation to the measures that Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Bytedance, Meta and Microsoft have put in place to ensure effective compliance of their core platforms services with the DMA.
These compliance workshops are scheduled as follows:

• Microsoft: 20 June 2025
• Amazon: 23 June 2025
• Apple: 30 June 2025
• Alphabet: 1 July 2025
• ByteDance: 2 July 2025
• Meta: 3 July 2025

The European Commission is organizing a series of compliance workshops with interested third parties to receive their views on specific issues and questions that may arise in relation to the measures that Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Bytedance, Meta and Microsoft have put in place to ensure effective compliance of their core platforms services with the DMA.
First two 2025 workshops in Brussels: Microsoft, on Friday 20 June 2025, 09:00 - 13:10 (CEST), followed by Amazon, on 23 June 2025.
See also the Commission's press release.

The European Commission is seeking feedback on a revision of the service of general economic interest (‘SGEI') State aid rules to address the issue of housing affordability. Significant investments are needed to bridge the investment gap for affordable housing. State aid measures can contribute to incentivising the necessary investments.

The European Commission today adopted the proposals for Council decisions to sign and conclude the EU-UK Competition Cooperation Agreement.
The Competition Cooperation Agreement will be a ‘supplementing agreement' to the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement, which provides for competition cooperation and coordination and foresees the possibility to enter into a separate agreement on competition cooperation.

As this was already the case in March 2024, the Commission will again hold technical workshops with interested third parties to receive their views on specific issues and questions that may arise in relation to the measures that Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Bytedance, Meta and Microsoft have put in place to ensure effective compliance of their core platforms services with the DMA.

The European Commission announced on 9 April the launch of a Design Support Hub for Important Projects of Common European Interest (IPCEI), within which it will work closely with Member States to shape and design IPCEI candidates following their endorsement.
More information about the meeting is available on the JEF-IPCEI webpage.