Strict requirements for web content: EU wants to reduce the power of Google and Co.


Strict guidelines for web content
EU wants to throttle the power of Google and Co.

Tech giants like Google and Facebook dominate the internet. The EU wants to force corporations of this size into a tighter regulatory concept in order to protect fundamental rights and consumer protection.

The EU Commission has presented a draft for new rules to control large Internet companies such as Google, Amazon, Apple and Facebook. The requirements, divided into two packages – Digital Markets Act (DMA) and Digital Services Act (DSA) – each focus on competition and the handling of user content. The corporations face penalties for violations that can amount to up to ten percent of sales – and in extreme cases, dismantling.

German politicians welcomed the draft in initial reactions, and it may take months for it to be introduced. As part of the DMA's new competition rules, it defines "gatekeeper" companies who control the data and access to platforms that thousands of companies and millions of Europeans rely on for their work and social contacts. This can include search engine operators, social networks and cloud providers. They should be required to share certain data with rivals and regulators. Conversely, they should be forbidden from giving preference to their own services. The new rules for services and the handling of user data actually replace the e-commerce directive issued 20 years ago.

These rules should apply to companies with more than 45 million users, which corresponds to ten percent of the EU population. Tech giants should also do more against illegal content such as child pornography and take stronger action against manipulation of elections or health information. The new regulations still have to be coordinated with the individual EU states and the EU Parliament, which should take months.

"Have tech giants watched for a long time"

"We Europeans have watched for too long as the tech giants rule the European market according to their own rules," said Federal Justice Minister Christine Lambrecht in an initial reaction. Europe could become "a pioneer for the protection of fundamental rights and consumer protection in the digital world".

Economy Minister Peter Altmaier pointed out that Germany was already working on specifications for large corporations in digital competition law with the GWB Digitization Act. Work will be done to ensure that national and European rules complement each other. The digital association Bitkom spoke of the "most significant and comprehensive changes to European Internet regulation in 20 years" and welcomed the fact that the Commission was committed to the basic principles of the free Internet. When it comes to competition, it is positive that control and enforcement of the new rules should be located at EU level. "This is an important step towards a harmonized European internal market," said Bitkom President Achim Berg.

A Facebook spokesman said both new measures were a step in the right direction. Extensive lobbying work by the corporations concerned, most of which are based in the USA, is expected in the coming months. The latest EU rules on copyright, for example, were less strict in their final version than initially feared by companies. A joint approach by the corporations is not expected. In the first statement, the Facebook spokesman said he hopes the DMA will also set Apple limits: The iPhone manufacturer "controls an entire ecosystem" and uses this power "to harm developers and consumers, as well as large platforms such as Facebook ".

. (tagsToTranslate) Policy (t) Google (t) Facebook (t) EU