EU forces tech giants to comply with antitrust law

The European Commission (EC) forced this Wednesday Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, ByteDance, Meta and Microsoft to comply with the digital markets law, the new antitrust regulations with which the European Union (EU) wants to control the market power of big technology.

All of them meet the requirements of having a turnover in Europe of at least 7.5 billion euros (US$ 8.039 million) in the last three years or a market value of 75 billion in the last year, or at least 45 million users. assets and more than 10,000 business users per year and operate in three countries of the EU.

Therefore, Brussels considers that they have sufficient power to distort the market, so that in the next six months they will have to comply with the criteria established by the EU to try to guarantee free competition in the digital economy.

Specifically, 22 of the services offered by the companies must comply with them: from the social networks Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and LinkedIn, to the WhatsApp and Messenger messaging systems, to the YouTube video platform, through the Google Search engine and the Chrome and Safari browsers.

Also the operating systems iOS, Android and Windows, the services, Google Play and Google Shopping, Amazon Marketplace, Meta Marketplace and the mobile application stores of Apple (App Store) and Google (Google Play), as well as advertising tools on line of Google, Amazon and Meta.

As of today, the six companies must notify the European Commission in advance when they want to acquire another company and they will have to designate an interlocutor with the Community Executive to deal with possible breaches or subsequent investigations.

The digital markets law changes the logic that has prevailed until now in the European Union regarding antitrust regulations, since companies must meet the requirements in advance, without having to wait for Brussels to initiate an investigation that usually lasts years to determine if they respect free competition, in a rapidly evolving digital market.

The norm prohibits them from combining the personal data that companies acquire through their multiple services (for example, Meta will not be able to cross information between Facebook and WhatsApp).

Nor will they be able to force users to keep the company’s own mobile applications installed on their devices and customers will be able to purchase applications through competing stores.

Internet giants will also not be able to favor their own products in their search engines and the messaging services of large platforms will have to be compatible with those of smaller companies.

They will also be prohibited from using the data they obtain from their business customers to compete with them, a measure that affects, for example, Amazon and Meta Marketplace.

In addition, financial institutions will be able to offer alternative payment services to those currently offered monopolistically by some of these companies.

If they fail to meet the criteria, Brussels may impose fines of up to 20% of their worldwide turnover and, ultimately, force a restructuring of the company.

The European Commission has accepted the arguments of Microsoft and Apple not to include the Bing search engine, the Edge browser and the online advertising tool Microsoft Advertising, Apple’s messaging system iMessage or Apple’s tablet operating system (iPadOs). but has launched an investigation to decide if they will have to meet the requirements.

It has also discarded the email services Gmail and Outlook.com, as well as Samsung’s browser.

Google’s director of competition in Europe, Oliver Bethell, said the company will review “thoroughly“the decision of the European Commission, with whom he said he will continue to collaborate”tightly”.

A Microsoft spokesman said the company accepts Brussels’ decision to force them to comply with the rules and welcomed the fact that it has ruled out its search engine, browser and Internet advertising program for now.

While the deputy director of the Association of European Consumers (BEUC), Ursula Pachl stated that “today is an important step to make digital marketplaces work better for consumers”.

Source: EFE