This post was originally published on this site
The European Commission is preparing broad legislation to regulate big tech, including rules on political advertising.
Denis Charlet/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
Two European cabinet ministers have called on regulators to take preemptive action against tech giants, in a bid to curb their power and control over the market.
Cédric O of France and Mona Keijzer of the Netherlands signed a position paper Thursday that said intervention targeting “gatekeeping” online platforms is required to ensure fair competition and that users are treated fairly.
Their target is big tech companies like Facebook FB, -1.56% and Amazon AMZN, -2.32%, which they said are so dominant that they structurally act as gatekeepers for other platforms and on the use of data.
The paper outlines possible measures, including forcing companies like Apple AAPL, +0.07% to allow users to take their data to other platforms. It also lists as a possible new rule requiring the likes of Google GOOGL, -0.23% to stop “disruptive self-preferencing” when they promote their own services over those of rivals.
Plus: EU has U.S. tech giants in its legal crosshairs
The paper does note that “platforms continue to provide entrepreneurs and consumers with a large number of benefits,” but that these benefits are diminished when there is little to no competition online.
O and Keijzer’s joint declaration comes as the European Commission prepares broad legislation to regulate big tech, including rules on political advertising. Draft proposals are expected before the end of the year.
O is the French secretary of state for digital transition and electronic communications, and Keijzer is the Dutch state secretary for economic affairs and climate policy.
Their focus is on ensuring that users, including businesses, aren’t overly reliant on dominant platforms and subjected to “unfair terms or behaviour.” The paper also outlines how smaller, innovative platforms can be prevented from entering online spaces dominated by a few companies.
“This may ultimately lead to a significant lack of competition as well as broader market failures stemming from users’ inability to shop around on the market and pick the terms and conditions which they favour,” the paper reads. “Let alone this negative impact on freedom of choice, these outcomes may cause major harm regarding innovation, price and quality.”
O and Keijzer’s position paper comes just days after a Financial Times report that the EU was drawing up a “hit list”of big tech companies that would be subject to new and touger regulations.
Read more on this: Why the EU is drawing up a ‘hit list’ of major Big Tech players like Facebook and Google
Outside the scope of competition, European countries have long targeted U.S. tech giants for their tax practices. Countries including the U.K., Austria, and Turkey have all proposed digital taxes within the last year, in an attempt to capture more of the revenues these companies generate within their borders.
More: Google is making advertisers foot the bill for painful new digital taxes
Last month Google said it would pass on the cost of these new taxes to advertisers, and in August Facebook agreed to pay $125 million to France to settle a long-running tax dispute that began with a raid on the company’s Paris offices in 2012.
