- Amazon, Alphabet, Apple, Microsoft, Meta and ByteDance now have six months to comply with stricter market regulations.
- Microsoft and Apple challenged the commission’s view that Bing and iMessage are services that must follow the new rules.
- The European Union has intensified its oversight of Big Tech players in recent years, often criticized for being anti-American.
The European Commissioner for the Internal Market, Thierry Breton, spoke to CNBC about the latest regulation on Big Tech.
Thierry Monasse | Getty Images News | fake images
BRUSSELS – American tech giants face tougher rules in Europe with more regulations announced this week, but a senior European Union official told CNBC the goal is to prevent forced breakups of big companies.
The European Commission, the executive arm of the EU, on Wednesday named six “gatekeepers”: these are companies that have an annual turnover of more than 7.5 billion euros (8 billion dollars) or 45 million monthly active users within the block. they are Amazon, Alphabet, Apple, Microsoft, Goal and ByteDance, which now have six months to comply with stricter market rules, such as not being able to prevent users from uninstalling any pre-installed software or apps, or treating their own services more favorably.
“If these companies don’t comply, and I hope they all do, then we have the potential to be fined up to 10% of global revenue,” Thierry Breton, the EU’s internal market commissioner, told CNBC on Wednesday. .
The fine could increase up to 20% if the company in question continues to break the rules.
“And if they continue, yes, we do have tools, even to break up these companies, but I’ll never want to use them. And I can tell you that the conversations we’re having with all these companies are professional and I think they’re going to come to the right decision,” Breton said.
Microsoft and Apple challenged the commission’s view that their services, Bing and iMessage, must follow the new rules, known collectively as the EU Digital Markets Act. The commission began an investigation analyzing the arguments of these companies and will decide within five months if they are valid.
The European Union has intensified its oversight of big tech companies in recent years and has often been criticized for being anti-American, given that most of these companies are based in the United States.
“I enjoy being able to offer successful companies, European or non-European, the chance to enter our digital market, which is, by the way, bigger than the US one. So it’s very attractive.” “We are happy that large non-European companies can benefit from it,” said Breton, who spoke exclusively to CNBC.
In addition to the Digital Markets Law, the EU has also introduced the Digital Services Law, which focuses on making platforms legally responsible for the content they broadcast. Failure to do so could also result in heavy fines and temporary bans on the European market.
Some of the largest tech companies have undergone stress tests in the lead up to the implementation of the new law. For example, the stress test X The social media platform, formerly known as Twitter, revealed that there is still work to be done to tackle illegal content and misinformation.
Amazon Marketplace, Apple AppStore, Instagram, TikTok and GoogleSearch are among the 19 platforms that are governed by stricter rules. More companies could be added to this list, including Netflix, PornHub, and Airbnb.