- The EU has agreed on a new law that should limit the power of the internet giants.
- The law aims to give consumers more freedom of choice when it comes to online offers.
- A second regulatory draft – for digital services – is to follow.
Tech giants like Facebook and Google will have to comply with much stricter rules in the European Union in the future. Negotiators from the EU states and the European Parliament agreed late Thursday evening in Brussels on a law on digital markets (Digital Markets Act, DNA), which is intended to limit the market power of the Internet giants and ensure fairer competition. This should give consumers more freedom of choice when it comes to online offers.
Digital services are also to be regulated
The DMA is part of a large digital package presented by the EU Commission in December 2020. The second part is the Digital Services Act (DSA), which Parliament and EU countries are still negotiating. The DSA deals with social aspects such as hate speech or counterfeit products.
Most recently, at the beginning of the millennium, the EU gave itself comprehensive rules for the Internet. Complaints are constantly being raised today that the Internet is a legal vacuum and that it is difficult to enforce existing rules. So far, competition law from the analog world has not been able to prevent the rapid concentration of users and market power in a few digital groups.