Germany is not mincing words when it comes to Big Tech’s obligations under the new European Union rules. In a bold move, a senior German economy ministry official, Sven Giegold, has called for Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, ByteDance, Meta Platforms, and Microsoft to foot the bill for complying with the Digital Markets Act (DMA). This demand, he argues, would bolster EU antitrust regulators’ ability to enforce the DMA, which these six companies must adhere to by March 7.
The DMA, a groundbreaking set of regulations, lays down strict requirements for these tech giants. Among other things, it mandates that they allow rival services to operate alongside their own, give business users the freedom to promote their offerings independently, and refrain from unfairly promoting their products over competitors’ on their platforms. Additionally, the DMA prohibits these companies from preventing users from removing pre-installed software or apps on their devices.
Giegold’s proposal goes further, suggesting that a fee financing model, similar to the one under the Digital Services Act (DSA), should be introduced for the DMA. Under the DSA, 20 major online platforms, including Meta, Google, Apple, and TikTok, are required to pay a supervisory fee amounting to 0.05% of their annual worldwide net income to bolster content policing efforts on their platforms. Notably, the DMA currently lacks such a supervisory fee.
Moreover, Giegold emphasized the need for EU antitrust enforcers to concentrate on key sectors with an international dimension to enhance European companies’ global competitiveness. He highlighted areas such as raw materials, energy, transport, semiconductors, and cloud computing as critical for EU businesses.
In a bid to formalize these proposals at the EU level, Giegold announced that Germany would be submitting a concrete proposal the following week. He expressed hope that these proposals would be considered in the reforms spearheaded by Mario Draghi and Enrico Letta, former prime ministers of Italy tasked by the Commission with revitalizing the EU’s competitiveness.
Germany’s stance underscores the growing pressure on Big Tech to comply with stringent regulations and contribute more to the regulatory costs associated with operating in the EU. As these proposals gain traction, it will be interesting to see how these tech giants respond and how these developments shape the future of tech regulation in the EU.
(Source: CNA | U.S. News & World Report | The Print)
