The European Union implements two new laws to tame technology giants

Two main laws regulating the activities of digital platforms have recently entered into force in the European Union: the Digital Markets Law, which focuses on competition between giant digital companies, and the Digital Services Law, which deals with content provided by major platforms. The European Commission immediately began prosecuting those suspected of violating the new rules.

The most recent measure in this context came at the end of last March, when the European Commission opened investigations into Apple, Alphabet (the parent company of Google), and Meta on suspicion of non-compliance with the special competition rules stipulated in the Digital Markets Law.

The investigations were announced just two weeks after the Digital Markets Act entered into force on March 7, which clearly demonstrated that “compliance with the Digital Markets Act is something we take very seriously,” according to what European Union Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said.

But the technology industry had a different view. “The timing of the announcement (of the investigations), in the midst of DMA compliance workshops currently being held, made it seem as if the Commission “Europe is ahead of the events.” It is noteworthy that Apple, Google and Meta are among the members of the association.

The Digital Markets Law was drafted with the aim of regulating the competitive practices of the major platforms that the European Commission considers to be “gatekeepers” in the field of the digital economy.

“Gatekeeper” is an expression given to a company that has a strong and established position in the field of the digital economy in the European Union, and it acts as an intermediary between many users and companies.

As for the Digital Services Law, which is the sister legislation to the Digital Markets Law, it is a content control law that forces digital platforms to do more to confront harmful and illegal content.

In August 2023, the first phase of the Digital Services Law rules began to apply to “very large platforms” and to “very large search engines” online – which serve more than 45 million monthly users in the European Union. The rules for smaller platforms came into effect in February 2024.

Under the Digital Markets Law, the European Commission identified six “gatekeeper” companies, namely Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, TikTok owned by ByteDance, Meta, and Microsoft, among those targeted by the law.

In this context, the Commission, which is the executive arm of the European Union, has identified 22 distinct digital services, very large platforms and search engines, under the Digital Services Law.

This number includes all the “gatekeepers” according to the Digital Markets Law, which are five search engines belonging to Google (Google Search (Google Search), Google Play (Google Games), Google Maps (Google Maps), Google Shopping (Google Shopping), YouTube), and the two Facebook platforms). YouTube (from Meta), Bing from Microsoft, LinkedIn (also owned by Microsoft), TikTok, the Amazon e-commerce store, and the Apple App Store (Apple’s application store).

The Digital Services Law also classifies the X platform (formerly Twitter) as a very large online platform, and it is already under investigation for suspected violations of the rules.

X has not yet been designated as a “gatekeeper” under the Digital Markets Act, although the company has notified the European Commission that it meets the criteria in this regard.

Big Tech companies come under scrutiny over competition concerns In new investigations under the European Markets Act, the European Commission suspects that Google and Apple did not take effective measures to allow mobile app developers to inform users of their offers outside the “gatekeepers” app stores. Deduct a portion of all transactions.

The Commission also suspects that Google is giving preference to its own services in relation to its search results – for example, giving “Google Shopping” priority over competing services.

Moreover, the Commission is conducting an investigation into “Meta” regarding the company’s recently implemented policy, according to which it requires users to choose between paying for access and agreeing to share their personal data with the company’s services, such as Facebook and Instagram, in order to use it in targeted advertising. .

The Commission is also seeking to “clarify” whether Amazon gives preference to products bearing its own brand, and whether the new fee structure for Apple’s App Store is compatible with the Digital Markets Act.

The Commission intends to complete its investigations within 12 months, and companies found to have violated the Digital Markets Law may be subject to fines amounting to about 10% of their annual revenue, or 20% if violations are repeated.

The European Commission targets deep fakes before the elections. Last month, the European Commission used its powers granted to it by the Digital Services Law, to require TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, X, Google Search, YouTube, Snapchat, and Bing to clarify the measures that each of them takes to manage the risks arising from content resulting from the use of… Artificial intelligence, such as deepfakes.

These companies are required to take action against risks related to artificial intelligence within the framework of a set of guidelines published under the risk mitigation rules for large platforms, within the Digital Services Law. Companies found to have violated risk mitigation rules risk being fined up to 6% of their annual revenue globally.

There are special concerns in Brussels about the repercussions of manipulation and misleading information by Russia on the European Parliament elections scheduled for the period from 6 to 9 next June. The companies included in the Commission’s request to obtain information had until April 5 to answer questions related to protecting the elections, and until April 26 for the rest.

As with all EU regulations, the Digital Services Act had to be transformed into national law, i.e. applied in each member state. This has sparked controversy in some quarters, including accusations that the law would lead to excessive censorship and suppression of technically illegal content.