EU laws are set to reshape the digital market – and big tech isn’t happy

[Dimaeiya333]

Having largely eluded regulators for more than a decade, Big Tech is facing sweeping EU antitrust and digital security legislation that is set to fundamentally reshape the global digital landscape. The laws come despite intense efforts by Big Tech lobbyists.


The EU's Digital Markets Act (DMA), which has been approved in principle, aims to crack down on anti-competitive behaviour by so-called "gatekeeper" companies , which provide services such as internet browsers, messaging or social networks. The DMA will apply to companies with a market capitalisation of €75 billion or an annual turnover of €7.5 billion - in effect, this means Google (Alphabet), Apple, Facebook (Meta), Amazon and Microsoft (GAFAM).

Its sister legislation, the Digital Services Act (DSA), will apply to a broader set of tech companies and aims to curb illegal behaviour and the spread of disinformation online. Together, the two laws will give EU regulators greater control than ever before over the operations of tech companies.

“The agreement (on the DMA) marks the beginning of a new era of technological regulation worldwide ,” said the rapporteur of the European Parliament’s Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection, Andreas Schwab, in a statement. “The Digital Markets Act puts an end to the ever-increasing dominance of large technology companies. From now on, they will have to prove that they also enable fair competition on the internet.”

Also in the United States, lawmakers are pushing for a pair of bills — the American Innovation and Choice Online Act and the Open Apps Market Act — to be voted on by Congress before the summer. Both bills received partisan support from the House Judiciary Committee last year.

The EU DMA and the proposed US laws have similar goals: stopping big tech from giving preference to their own services and products over those of other companies in search results, and banning app store operators from requiring communication directors email list the use of their own in-app payment systems . The DMA will also allow for interoperability between platforms, such as allowing Signal users to message someone directly on WhatsApp. Companies will also be prevented from combining and cross-using data from different business units and using it for targeted advertising.

The DSA targets malicious information and behaviour online, and gives the European Commission (EC) broad oversight powers over companies’ management of algorithms, content moderation and responses to global crises. It will also introduce safeguards to protect minors and limit the use by tech companies (but not news websites) of sensitive personal data for targeted advertising – a move that strikes at the heart of the business models of Google and Facebook, which rely heavily on advertising for revenue.

“The Digital Services Act will ensure that what is illegal offline is also seen and treated as illegal online – not as a slogan, but as a reality,” EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager tweeted when the deal was reached.

Companies that breach the DMA could be fined up to 10% of their global revenue , rising to 20% for repeat offences, while those that breach the DSA could be fined up to 6% of their total revenue. The DSA will also make companies pay an annual fee of 0.5% of annual global revenue to cover the costs of compliance monitoring.