An agreement could be reached as early as Thursday evening on the Digital Markets Act (DMA) Regulation which must impose on groups such as Gafam -Google, Apple, Meta (Facebook), Amazon and Microsoft- a series of obligations and prohibitions to limit their power over smaller companies.
A meeting in Brussels between representatives of the Commission, the European Parliament and the States must open Thursday at 3:00 p.m. to settle the last persistent points of contention.
"Our wish is that everything will be settled before dinner," MEP Andreas Schwab, rapporteur for the text, told journalists, while stressing that the outcome was not certain and that additional discussions could be necessary. .
The project, presented in December 2020 by Commissioners for Competition Margrethe Vestager and Internal Market Thierry Breton, "will better protect consumers, offer them new possibilities" and allow the European executive "to act much faster" against anti-competitive practices, believes Mr. Schwab.
The text, which only targets the largest platforms (Gafam and perhaps a handful of other groups such as the online booking company Booking or the social network TikTok) provides in particular for increased control by the Commission over all their operations. takeover of digital companies, to limit the monopolization of innovation by start-ups and avoid takeovers with the sole purpose of killing a competitor.
It will also force these giants to share crucial data with their corporate clients and should make user consent mandatory for cross-referencing data from multiple services for advertising profiling purposes.
The new regulations will prevent the compulsory use of software pre-installed on computers or telephones, such as browsers, music applications or weather services, and will facilitate the use of alternative products.
In particular, a free choice of software application stores will be introduced, making it possible to bypass dominant players such as the Apple App Store or Google Play.
In the home stretch, the European Parliament is trying to impose interoperability of messaging services which would allow, for example, a Signal user to communicate with a contact using WhatsApp (Meta), MEP Stéphanie Yon explained to AFP. -Courtin, also rapporteur of the text.
Fines of up to 10% of global business sales are provided for in the event of an infringement, and Parliament would like to increase the slate even further in the event of a repeat offence.
“Now it is the public authorities who impose their rules and no longer the tech giants,” summarized Ms. Yon-Courtin.
© 2022 AFP