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How Brussels will attack Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, Google and Facebook with the Digital Services Act

How Brussels will attack Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, Google and Facebook with the Digital Services Act

The European Union is preparing to enact new rules to prevent the anti-competitive behavior of large technological platforms. The Digital Services Act is expected by the EU Commission in December

Brussels is ready to regulate the largest tech companies in Silicon Valley.

Three internal documents of the European Commission, reviewed by Politico , indicate that the European Commission is developing a wide range of legislative instruments (Digital Services Act) to ban what it considers anti-competitive behavior. In addition to forcing big techs to do more to protect their users from illegal content and activities.

Plans for the new regulation come as tech giants are under antitrust lens on both sides of the Atlantic.

The Digital Services Act is the first major overhaul of the EU's approach to internet regulation in two decades. Brussels hopes to set global standards for the digital economy and address the entrenched advantages enjoyed by US big techs.

According to the Financial Times, Brussels is planning to pass the Digital Services Act by the end of the year.

THE TECHNOLOGICAL COLOSSUS OF THE SILICON VALLEY ARE INTERESTED

While the rules are expected to cover Google, Facebook, Apple and Amazon, a draft impact assessment showed that cloud giants like Microsoft could also fall within the scope.

ARGINATE THE GATEKEEPER PLATFORMS

A draft act would also prevent "gatekeeper platforms" (companies that own the platforms on which others do business, such as Google and its Play Store, Apple and its App Store, or Amazon and its Marketplace), from using advertising data they receive from other businesses for "any other purpose other than advertising services".

According to European officials, Google and Amazon are leveraging consumer data collected on their platform to improve their competitive position. For example, Amazon looks at private sales data to decide which Amazon base product to create next. If the Digital Services Act is passed, Amazon should make this data available to competitors to maintain a level playing field.

THE CASE OF APPLE

But as we said not only Google and Amazon. Apple is also facing controversy regarding its App Store.

For example, Apple is facing a lawsuit filed by Epic Games, which runs the popular video game Fortnite, regarding the 30% commission for placing an app on the App Store.

Last June, however, the European Union launched two antitrust investigations against Apple. One will check whether Apple has violated EU competition rules with its App Store policies, as reported by Spotify and Rakuten.

PREVENT THE PRIVILEGE OF YOUR SERVICES

Also in the new legislation, there is also an act that would prevent big techs from using preferential treatment for their services. To understand, a rule that would prevent Microsoft from promoting Edge in the Start menu or Google from promoting Chrome on the search engine page, for example.

THE “GREYLIST” FOR EUROPEAN OFFICIALS

Also included in the document is a potential “greylist” of activities that the European official deems “unfair” and which may therefore require more supervision by a competent authority.

According to this list, large technology platforms will not be able to "prevent third-party vendors from accessing essential information" of customers. They will also be required to "not collect personal data beyond what is necessary for the provision of their services".

STEP FORWARD OF THE EU COMMISSION

As EurActiv points out, the drafts of these new Commission rules constitute an enhancement of the measures foreseen in the EU platform-to-business regulation, which entered into force in July 2019. The regulation obliges search engines to be transparent about any preferential treatment they confer. to its products and services.

WHAT GOOGLE THINKS OF THE DIGITAL SERVICES ACT

The digital services law is expected to be approved by the end of the year. But not that fast. As the FT points out, the rules are likely to face pushbacks by tech companies. In its submission to the Digital Services Act, Google suggested that existing rules should be modernized rather than "moving into consideration of new and distinct regulatory frameworks."

However, the internal documents viewed by Politico are drafts and may still be modified between now and December.


This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/innovazione/come-bruxelles-aggredira-google-amazon-apple-e-facebook-con-il-digital-services-act/ on Thu, 01 Oct 2020 14:10:04 +0000.