Margrethe Vestager, European Commissioner for Competition, on January 8, 2024 in Brussels (AFP/Kenzo TRIBOUILLARD)
The European Union’s competition commissioner said Friday that she had warned American tech giants that they would have to strictly comply with new EU legislation on digital markets which comes into force in two months.
Margrethe Vestager was traveling to Silicon Valley, California, where she met with the bosses of Apple and Google, as well as other tech executives, to discuss regulations, known by the acronym “DMA”.
Noting the slowness of investigations and legal remedies on the issue of abuse of dominant position, the EU has developed this legislation, hoping to finally bring the giants of the tech sector into line.
From March it will impose new obligations and bans, accompanied by dissuasive sanctions, on five American groups, including Alphabet, the parent company of Google, but also on Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft, and the Chinese ByteDance, owner of TikTok .
The six firms have been designated as “gatekeepers”, because of their size which makes them essential.
“The gatekeepers have been appointed and March 7 is compliance day,” Margrethe Vestager said on Friday after her meetings in Silicon Valley.
The aim of the DMA is to act before abusive behavior has already destroyed competition and created a near-monopoly, as the EU believes may have happened in the past with the takeovers of Instagram and WhatsApp by Facebook or those of YouTube and Waze by Google.
The DMA will, for example, force Apple to authorize application stores other than the Apple Store on its famous iPhone or iPad.
The legislation is the subject of legal challenges notably by Meta and TikTok.
“The regulations can be challenged, we respect that,” said Margrethe Vestager, while affirming that these appeals would not suspend the entry into force of the DMA.
“So far, I see no reason to think that (companies) will not do their best to be in compliance on March 7,” said the commissioner.
Companies in violation will face fines of up to 20% of their global turnover in the event of repeat offenses, or even dismantling measures in the most serious cases.
© 2024 AFP
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