EU pledges new rules to rein in big tech e-commerce and social platforms

Plans unveiled to regulate Amazon, Google, and Apple

Pictured Google head quarters in Dublin. Photo: Sam Boal /Rollingnews.ie

The EU has pledged a new start for users of social platforms and for business customers of the e-commerce giants such as Amazon, Google, and Apple, with the threat of new laws to break up the platforms in Europe.   

European Commission vice-president Margrethe Vestager and industry commissioner Thierry Breton unveiled plans that they say will regulate both the social media platforms and the huge e-commerce and digital advertising tech giants.  

The commissioners said they plan two pieces of legislation, including a Digital Services Act and a Digital Markets Act, to set new "ambitious" regulations for "all digital services, including social media, online market places, and other online platforms" operating in the EU. 

The moves are part of new global moves to rein in the big tech which owns large parts of social platforms and has a huge power through the commercial might they wield.  

The Commission under Ms Vestager in recent years had focused on imposing large fines on competition grounds on Google and other US giants but businesses in Europe have continued to complain about the power concentrated in large tech giants which are in the main US-owned.

Significantly, the US authorities in recent weeks have launched lawsuits targeting the business power of the tech giants.

Any potential fallout for Ireland where many of the US social and e-commerce giants have their European head offices is difficult to assess at this stage. 

Google and Apple alone employ more than 12,000 people here.  

Under the new EU plan, a new category called digital "gatekeepers" will be identified that could mean that tech giants like Amazon, Apple, or Google could face fines of as much as 10% of their revenue, while its Digital Services Act could lead to fines as high as 6% of revenue for social media platforms if they fail to remove illegal posts.

The Commission said companies could be regulated as gatekeepers if their annual sales in Europe are in or more than €6.5bn or if they provide "a core service in at least three European countries".

Under the Digital Services Act, the Commission said it will also be new powers to remove illegal goods, services, or content online as well as obligations on the social media platforms "to prevent abuse of their systems". 

It said that tech giants shouldn't be able to use their data unfairly at the expense of firms using their platforms, or have the influence "where users are locked into a particular service and have limited options for switching to another one".

It also pledged what it said will be wide-ranging transparency measures.

These include measures on online advertising and on the algorithms used to recommend content to users" .

It will also have "new powers to scrutinise how platforms work, including by facilitating access by researchers to key platform data; and new rules on traceability of business users in online market places, to help track down sellers of illegal goods or services". 

"The two proposals serve one purpose: To make sure that we, as users, have access to a wide choice of safe products and services online. 

"And that businesses operating in Europe can freely and fairly compete online just as they do offline," Ms Vestager said.

Mr Breton said: “Many online platforms have come to play a central role in the lives of our citizens and businesses, and even our society and democracy at large.

With today's proposals, we are organising our digital space for the next decades.

"With harmonised rules, ex-ante obligations, better oversight, speedy enforcement, and deterrent sanctions, we will ensure that anyone offering and using digital services in Europe benefits from security, trust, innovation, and business opportunities.”