E.U. Takes Aim at Big Tech’s Power With Landmark Digital Act
The path of the Digital Markets Act faced hurdles. Policymakers dealt with what watchdogs said was one of the fiercest lobbying efforts ever seen in Brussels as industry groups tried to water down the new law. They also brushed aside concerns raised by the Biden administration that the rules unfairly targeted American companies.
Questions remain about how the new law will work in practice. Companies are expected to look for ways to diminish the law’s impact through the courts. And regulators will need new funding to pay for their expanded oversight responsibilities at a time when budgets are under strain from the pandemic.
“The pressure will be intense to show results, and fast,” said Thomas Vinje, a veteran antitrust attorney in Brussels who has represented Amazon, Microsoft and Spotify.
The Digital Markets Act is expected to apply to so-called gatekeeper platforms with a market value of more than 75 billion euros, or about $82 billion, which includes Alphabet, the owner of Google, and YouTube, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft and Meta.
Specifics of the law read like a wish list for rivals of the biggest companies.
Apple and Google, which make the operating systems that run on nearly every smartphone, would be required to loosen their grip. Apple would likely have to allow alternative app stores for the first time. The law is also expected to let companies such as Spotify and Epic Games use alternative payment to Apple’s in the App Store, which charges a 30 percent commission.
On Android devices, Google would likely have to give customers options to use other email and search services on handsets in Europe, similar to what it has already been doing in response to a previous E.U. antitrust judgment. On Wednesday, Google announced that Spotify and some other app developers would be allowed to offer alternative payment methods to Google’s within its app store.
Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/24/technology/eu-regulation-apple-meta-google.html