Brussels: Big Tech companies will be handled as banks, according to the top EU official told reporters on Friday, while a landmark new law on digital was welcomed as the long-overdue alternative in the fight against Google, Meta, and Amazon.
“For companies that play a role as gatekeepers, the Digital Markets Act (DMA) will (now) set the rules of the game,” the EU’s chief of competition Margrethe Vestager told reporters hours after the law was passed.
It has been “done a long time ago in sectors such as banking, telecoms, energy, transport,” and now, at “long last, we establish the same reality here,” she said.
France’s representative in the EU Commission, Thierry Breton, said that the law was “a critical moment for Europe” that saw public officials have “reclaimed power.”
“Everyone is welcome, but we have rules and they have to be respected,” said Breton, who is the Commissioner for industrial policy. Some praise and some criticism came in following negotiations between the European Parliament’s negotiators and EU members negotiated late Thursday night on the law to limit the dominance of technology giants like Google, Facebook owner Meta, Amazon, and Apple.
The European Consumer Organisation hailed a “big moment for consumers and businesses who have suffered from Big Tech’s harmful practices,” vice-head Ursula Pachl said.
It is believed that the DMA is expected to “put in place a lot of the shady practices Big Tech has engaged in throughout the years.”The lobbying group on behalf of Big Tech said the DMA was of “great significance” while warning against imposing “one-size-fits-all” solutions on very different companies following a statement issued by the Computer & Communications Industry Association.
When the final details are finalized, “we hope sufficient resources are allocated and that impacted companies will be given a fair chance to comply,” CCIA said.
Apple declared Thursday night the company was “concerned” about specific “privacy and security” threats for the users of its products, and Google cautioned about “potential risks” to innovation and the range of choices that are available to Europeans.
The DMA includes a lengthy list of guidelines and rules for Big Tech companies that would be liable for massive fines if they didn’t follow through.
Vestager declared she would like the law to appear in Europe’s Official Journal around October after being officially accepted by the bloc’s members and MEPs.
The Commission has six months to name the businesses that are affected, believed to be just the US tech giants and possibly several other players like Booking.com and TikTok. The first fines that could be imposed for non-compliance won’t be announced until the first quarter of 2024.
