A new set of draft rules by the European Union aimed at reining in the power of United States based tech giants could essentially bans companies like Alphabet unit Google, Facebook, Amazon, Apple and other US tech firms from favouring their services or forcing users to sign up to a bundle of the services.
The aim of the newly drafted rules - called the Digital Services Act, is to create the basic rules and regulations that will dictate data-sharing and the manner of operations of digital marketplaces. It is expected that the new draft rules will be passed, enacted and come into force by the end the current year.
Driven party by a slew of antitrust cases filed in Europe against US tech giants and their decisions and the subsequent failure of such decision to result in a boost in competition due to the lengthy process that typically takes several years, a a tough line against the American tech firms is being taken by the European Commission.
The dependence of thousands of EU companies on the tech giants for their business has made this case an urgent one for the Commission to get through as soon as possible.
According to the document of the new draft rule, data that is collected on their platforms by companies that are known as gatekeepers, such as companies with bottleneck power or strategic market status, will not be allowed to be used by those companies to target users unless the companies agree to also share the data with their rivals.
“Gatekeepers shall not pre-install exclusively their own applications nor require from any third party operating system developers or hardware manufacturers to pre-install exclusively gatekeepers’ own application,” the document said as reported in the media.
Further, the gatekeeper companies would also be prevented from blocking or preventing its rivals from offering their products to customers outside of the gatekeeper’s platform or services according to another of the clause in the new draft rule. It is believed that this move could be a huge hit for Apple and Google with respect to their app stores and the rules of payment that they impose on transactions on their app stores.
Gatekeeper companies would also be subjected to annual audits of their advertising metrics and reporting practices under the new drafted rules of the EU.
(Source:www.thechronicleherald.ca)
The aim of the newly drafted rules - called the Digital Services Act, is to create the basic rules and regulations that will dictate data-sharing and the manner of operations of digital marketplaces. It is expected that the new draft rules will be passed, enacted and come into force by the end the current year.
Driven party by a slew of antitrust cases filed in Europe against US tech giants and their decisions and the subsequent failure of such decision to result in a boost in competition due to the lengthy process that typically takes several years, a a tough line against the American tech firms is being taken by the European Commission.
The dependence of thousands of EU companies on the tech giants for their business has made this case an urgent one for the Commission to get through as soon as possible.
According to the document of the new draft rule, data that is collected on their platforms by companies that are known as gatekeepers, such as companies with bottleneck power or strategic market status, will not be allowed to be used by those companies to target users unless the companies agree to also share the data with their rivals.
“Gatekeepers shall not pre-install exclusively their own applications nor require from any third party operating system developers or hardware manufacturers to pre-install exclusively gatekeepers’ own application,” the document said as reported in the media.
Further, the gatekeeper companies would also be prevented from blocking or preventing its rivals from offering their products to customers outside of the gatekeeper’s platform or services according to another of the clause in the new draft rule. It is believed that this move could be a huge hit for Apple and Google with respect to their app stores and the rules of payment that they impose on transactions on their app stores.
Gatekeeper companies would also be subjected to annual audits of their advertising metrics and reporting practices under the new drafted rules of the EU.
(Source:www.thechronicleherald.ca)