Brussels puts new rules to tech giants
Brussels has unveiled a sweeping crackdown that could force Silicon Valley’s giants to sell key operations if they breach competition rules.
In two new pieces of legislation published Tuesday, local time, the European Commission released details of measures designed to level the playing field between socalled ‘‘gatekeeper’’ companies and smaller businesses. Apple, Amazon, Google and Facebook are all expected to be subject to the tougher restrictions.
The EU said under the new rules, search engines will be required to stop ranking their own services higher than rivals’ and online marketplaces will be blocked from using data unfairly, to sell their own products over those businesses are selling on their sites.
Competition tsar Margrethe Vestager said separate regulations would be introduced to force social media sites to ‘‘swiftly remove’’ illegal content. Companies will need to explain to users why posts had been removed, as well as provide insights into how their algorithms work and why some information ranks higher.
Those breaching either piece of legislation could face hefty fines or, potentially, forced divestments.
Both the Digital Services Act and Digital Markets Act ‘‘serve one purpose, to make sure that we as users, as customers, as businesses, have access to a wide choice of safe products and services online just as we do in the physical world,’’ Vestager said. She added the rules would mean that ‘‘all businesses operating in Europe can freely and
European commissioner
fairly compete online just as they do offline’’.
The legislation, which still need to go through EU processes before they are introduced, were widely welcomed by industry experts.
‘‘Sandwiched in between significant antitrust investigations rolling out in the US against Facebook and Google, Europe is once again pressing the globe forward in a manner that recognises the inequities in the marketplace particularly around the use of data by gatekeepers,’’ said Jason Kint, from Digital Context Next.
JP Vergne, an associate professor at UCL, said: ‘‘We are at a turning point with the three most meaningful regulators cracking down on digital platforms in one way or another.’’
The release of the new rules comes after years of discussions between Brussels and Silicon Valley giants. Those set to be hardest hit by the new regime have had the closest contact with commission officials, with Google, for example, having taken part in 158 meetings since last December.
Legal experts said the new rules placed ‘‘unprecedented new responsibilities on Big Tech firms, backed up by substantial fines’’.
Francine Cunningham, of law firm Bird & Bird, says the rules would see tech companies in general held to ‘‘higher standards of transparency ... regarding use of targeted advertising, content moderation and algorithm use, in a bid to protect users from illegal content’’.
Google said it would ‘‘review the commission’s proposals carefully over the coming days, [but] we are concerned that they appear to specifically target a handful of companies and make it harder to develop new products to support small businesses in Europe’’.
A spokesman for Facebook said the proposals were ‘‘on the right track to help preserve what is good about the internet’’. –
‘‘All businesses operating in Europe can freely and fairly compete online just as they do offline.’’