EU regulators to probe Alexa, Siri and other voice assistants

BRUSSELS : EU competition regulators are seeking information from 400 companies to establish if there are problems in the market for voice assistants such as Alexa and Siri and other internet-connected devices that could lead to antitrust cases.

The European Commission has opened similar inquiries in the past into sectors such as 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.