EU MP Says Tech Rules Should Target Only Dominant Firms

Draft rules aimed at reining in the power of Facebook, Alphabet unit Google, Amazon, and Apple should only target these US tech giants, a leading EU lawmaker said, reported Reuters.

Proposed by European Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager last year, the Digital Markets Act (DMA) could force US tech giants to change their lucrative business models and ensure a level playing field for smaller rivals.

The DMA defines online gatekeepers as companies with more than €6.5 billion (US$8 billion) in annual European turnover in the last three years or €65 billion in market value in the last financial year, and which provide a core platform service in at least three EU countries.

Such criteria could catch big EU and Asian tech companies in addition to the US competitors.

That revenue threshold should be ratcheted up to €10 billion and the market value to at least €100 billion, European Parliament lawmaker Andreas Schwab, who is leading the file for the EU body, said in a report.

“The DMA should be clearly targeted to those platforms that play an unquestionable role as gatekeepers due to their size and their impact on the internal market,” he wrote in his report.

“To this end, it is appropriate to increase the quantitative thresholds and to add … that they are providers of not only one but, at least, two core platform services,” Schwab said.

The EU competition enforcer should be able to designate in a month which gatekeepers should be subject to the rules instead of its proposed three-month period, he said.

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