The EU is adopting general rules to regulate Apple, Google and other big companies
EU lawmakers have developed general rules for regulating Apple, Google and other large companies in the digital economy, the Financial Times reports. It complements the Digital Markets Act and targets companies with a capitalization of over € 80 billion and at least one online service.
The purpose of the law is to combat the monopoly of the big technology giants. The European Parliament hopes to adopt it in 2022. Given the conditions for this law to enter into force, it will scrutinize more companies. In addition to the American Google, Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Microsoft, the Dutch Booking.com and China's Alibaba will also be affected, according to the Financial Times.
The new rules would prohibit companies from prioritizing their services and using a dominant position to the detriment of competitors' businesses. They are also extending the powers of national antitrust regulators to control the purchases of smaller companies by technology giants - regulators believe such deals can be made at a lower price to "kill" competitors.
MEPs also discussed a total ban on targeted advertising, a major source of revenue for technology giants such as Google and Facebook. However, the legislators did not take such a radical step - they only proposed stricter restrictions in this market, including rules to protect children from inappropriate content and stricter requirements for the transparency of algorithms.
Andreas Schwab, MEP involved in the debate on the bill, told the Financial Times that the EU was sending a signal to the market that "the game of unfair business practices in digital markets is over".
The draft must be approved by the European Parliament - it will be considered at the body's meeting next week. After that, the package of amendments must be agreed with the Member States of the European Union, and only then will it enter into force legally. According to the Financial Times, lawmakers have expressed hope that it will be adopted next year.
In October last year, the Financial Times wrote about the EU's plans to draw up a list of the largest IT companies subject to stricter antitrust rules.