Internet
EU countries agree on guidelines for internet giants
The icons of Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp can be seen on the screen of a smartphone. Photo: Karl-Josef Hildenbrand / dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
In the future, European countries want to take uniform action against the unfair trading practices of large tech companies. The last disagreements have apparently been resolved.
In order to contain the market power of some tech giants such as Google and Facebook, the EU states have agreed on a common line.
The permanent representatives of the member states unanimously agreed to a corresponding compromise on Wednesday, as announced by the Slovenian EU Council Presidency. The Digital Markets Act (DMA) aims to ensure that companies defined as gatekeepers behave fairly.
The EU states will formally confirm their position on November 25th. The European Parliament also wants to commit to one line by the end of the year. But in the end it was still unclear whether the parliament would include other aspects such as the interaction of different services – for example WhatsApp with other messengers – or the handling of target group-specific advertising in the DMA. Negotiations between the Council of EU States and the European Parliament could then begin at the beginning of next year. The compromise text of the EU states has been submitted to the German Press Agency.
At the end of 2020, the EU Commission proposed a large digital package consisting of DMA and the Digital Services Act (DSA). The DSA deals more with social issues such as illegal content and recommendation algorithms, the DMA with competition law aspects.
The big tech companies then face fines that can run into billions. With the DMA, the EU states are guided by the proposal of the EU Commission, according to which it should be up to ten percent of annual sales. To be treated as a gatekeeper, the platforms must have, among other things, more than 45 million users in the EU. You would then have to meet certain requirements.