Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google face hefty fines of between 6-10% under a draft EU law that seeks to curb their power in data and online platforms, reports Reuters. The EU law is the most serious attempt to rein in the U.S. tech giants’ power and seeks to prevent the emergence of anti-competitive dominant companies.
- One set of EU rules, the Digital Markets Act, calls for fines up to 10% of annual turnover for online gatekeepers breaching the new rules and outlines a list of dos and don’ts for them.
- The second set of rules, the Digital Services Act, targets very large online platforms and seeks to tackle illegal content, infringement of fundamental rights, and misuse of the platforms for political or other purposes.
- The target companies are required to show details of political advertising on their platforms and the parameters used by their algorithms to suggest and rank information.
- Regulatory scrutiny on tech giants has been growing worldwide and EU’s action marks its frustration with antitrust cases involving firms such as Google.
- EU is yet to reconcile the draft rules as some lawmakers have pushed for tougher rules while others are concerned stricter laws may stifle innovation.
- Tech companies have called for proportionate and balanced laws and are expected to take advantage of the EU differences to lobby for weaker laws.
- The final draft of the EU law is expected in the coming months or even years.
U.S. tech companies’ stocks are currently gaining. AMZN: NASDAQ is up 0.73% on premarket, AAPL: NASDAQ is up 1.91% on premarket, FB: NASDAQ is up 0.43% on premarket, GOOGL: NASDAQ is up 0.16% on premarket.
