New Decade, New Rules: EU Tames Tech Giants with Strict Measures

The digital markets in the European Union are under new supervision. The EU Commission has initiated the implementation of stricter guidelines for significant online platforms to curb abuses of power. A select group of six companies, whose 22 services now hold the status of so-called "gatekeepers," are particularly in the spotlight of these regulatory measures. Among the filtered gatekeepers of the digital age are the usual suspects from the ranks of American technology giants: Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, as well as Google's parent Alphabet and Meta, the corporation behind the social network Facebook. In addition to these established giants, the popular video platform TikTok, a subsidiary of the Chinese company Bytedance, has also made it onto this exclusive list. The new directives require the gatekeepers, for example, not to favor their own services at the expense of competing offers. This led to Google now placing results of specialized search services from other providers more prominently in its web search. There is also a prohibition on the linkage of user data across the various services offered without the explicit consent of users. In an unprecedented move, Apple has opened up the iPhone for the download of apps via external marketplaces, thus loosening the previous monopoly of its own download store. In contrast, the parent company of Facebook, Meta, has made the technical adjustments to allow its own messaging services, WhatsApp and Messenger, to open up for the integration of competitors' offerings such as Signal and Threema, although these initially responded coolly to the proposal and emphasized their existing data security standards. In the event of non-compliance with the new rules of the Digital Markets Act (DMA), the corporations could face fines of up to 10 percent of their annual turnover, and up to 20 percent for repeated infringements. As a last resort, a possible breakup of the companies could be envisaged. Courts could ultimately decide on the imposition of such penalties. Meanwhile, the debate continues as to the extent to which the EU Commission endorses Apple's compliance with the DMA guidelines. Critics like the music service provider Spotify and the game developer Epic complain that the conditions for external app hosting by the iPhone manufacturer are unattractive, which perpetuates favoring the established system. Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager has so far only announced that a thorough investigation of the DMA implementation is among the Commission's priorities. In discussions with the news agency Bloomberg, she emphasized that solutions must not be to the detriment of customers and users.