European lawmakers have given the green-light for new EU rules that will limit the market power of large online platforms like Facebook, Google, Apple, Microsoft, and Amazon.

Under the Digital Markets Act (DMA), certain practices by large platforms acting as “gatekeepers” will be blacklisted and the law will enable the European Commission to carry out market investigations and sanction non-compliant behaviour.

The European Parliament said that to be designated as a gatekeeper these companies must provide specific services, like browsers, messengers, or social media, which have at least 45 million monthly end users in the EU and 10,000 annual business users.

If tech platforms do not comply with the rules, the Commission can impose fines of up to 10 per cent of its total worldwide turnover in the preceding financial year, and 20 per cent in case of repeated infringements.

"The agreement ushers in a new era of tech regulation worldwide,” said German MEP, Andreas Schwab, who led negotiations. “The Digital Markets Act puts an end to the ever-increasing dominance of Big Tech companies.

“From now on, they must show that they also allow for fair competition on the internet. The new rules will help enforce that basic principle. Europe is thus ensuring more competition, more innovation and more choice for users.”

At talks between parliament, council, and commission on Thursday, it was agreed that the biggest messaging services like WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and iMessage will have to "open up" and interoperate with smaller messaging platforms, if they so request.

The parliament said that users of small or big platforms would "then be able to exchange messages, send files or make video calls across messaging apps, thus giving them more choice".

The new rules will also make sure that combining personal data for targeted advertising will only be allowed with "explicit consent to the gatekeeper". Alongside this, the law will include a requirement to allow users to "freely choose" their browser, virtual assistants or search engines.

Share Story: