Landmark EU rules will finally put regulation of Big Tech to the test

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https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2022/07/landmark-eu-rules-will-finally-put-regulation-of-big-tech-to-the-test/

Imagine an online world where what users want matters, and interoperability reigns. Friends could choose whichever messaging app they like and seamlessly chat cross-app. Any pre-installed app could be deleted on any device. Businesses could finally access their Facebook data, and smaller tech companies could be better positioned to compete with giants. Big Tech could even face consequences for not preventing the theft of personal info.

As the US struggles to pass legislation to protect Internet consumers, in the EU, these ideals could become reality over the next few years. EU lawmakers today passed landmark rules to rein in the power of tech giants such as Alphabet unit Google, Amazon, Apple, Facebook (Meta), and Microsoft, establishing a task force to regulate unfair business practices in Big Tech.

Amazon said that the company plans to evolve with Europe's "regulatory landscape" and review what the new legislation means for Amazon, its customers, and its partners. None of the other Big Tech companies mentioned immediately responded to a request for comment for this story.

It remains unclear exactly how challenging these new regulations—the Digital Markets Act and the Digital Services Act—will be to enforce.

Critics say that not much will change, arguing that tech giants will be able to easily afford massive fines for DMA violations or DSA breaches. And at an estimated 80 members, the DMA task force is too small to monitor compliance.

Once published in the EU’s Official Journal, “both acts will enter into force,” with the DMA applicable after six months. The DSA works a little differently. It will apply to all digital service providers after 15 months or “from January 1, 2024, whichever comes later,” but for “very large online platforms and very large online search engines,” compliance will be enforced after only four months.

It’s possible that the EU regulations—and any enforcement issues that may arise—will influence how the US approaches Big Tech regulation in the future, but the move is likely to impact millions of global users, depending on how (or if) companies act to remain in compliance.

Landmark EU rules will finally put regulation of Big Tech to the test

Keeping giant tech companies like Apple or Google in check is top priority.

arstechnica.com

 

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Next week, a law takes effect that will change the Internet forever—and make it much more difficult to be a tech giant. On November 1, the European Union’s Digital Markets Act comes into force, starting the clock on a process expected to force Amazon, Google, and Meta to make their platforms more open and interoperable in 2023. That could bring major changes to what people can do with their devices and apps, in a new reminder that Europe has regulated tech companies much more actively than the US.

“We expect the consequences to be significant,” says Gerard de Graaf, a veteran EU official who helped pass the DMA early this year. Last month, he became director of a new EU office in San Francisco, established in part to explain the law’s consequences to Big Tech companies. De Graaf says they will be forced to break open their walled gardens.

“If you have an iPhone, you should be able to download apps not just from the App Store but from other app stores or from the Internet,” de Graaf says in a conference room with emerald-green accents at the Irish consulate in San Francisco, where the EU’s office is initially located. The DMA requires dominant platforms to let in smaller competitors and could also compel Meta’s WhatsApp to receive messages from competing apps like Signal or Telegram, or prevent Amazon, Apple, and Google from preferencing their own apps and services.

Although the DMA takes force next week, tech platforms don’t have to comply immediately. The EU first must decide which companies are large and entrenched enough to be classified as “gatekeepers” subject to the toughest rules. De Graaf expects that about a dozen companies will be in that group, to be announced in the spring. Those gatekeepers will then have six months to come into compliance.

Europe prepares to rewrite the rules of the Internet

EU hopes DMA will force Big Tech platforms to break open their walled gardens.

arstechnica.com