The European Union has passed two digital reform bills, the Digital Markets Act and the Digital Services Act, aimed at strengthening the monitoring of technology giants. The two bills will take effect as soon as next spring and January 1, 2024, respectively.
The EU passed the Digital Services Act and the Digital Markets Act with more than 500 votes in favor, which will strengthen consumer protection and regulation of tech giants to promote fairer competition. EU President Vonder Leyen said the EU will become the largest regulator of digital platforms.
The Digital Market Law mainly regulates the over-inflated market positions of industry giants such as Google, Microsoft, and Apple, prevents companies from abusing their dominant market positions, and provides better interoperability for the services of smaller companies. In addition, app developers will have the right to directly contact their customers for transactions without going through the relevant platform holder.
The Digital Services Act requires online platforms such as Facebook, Amazon, and Google to increase transparency and simplify user agreements. Additionally, businesses can no longer use users’ profile data for ad targeting, as well as selling ads to children.
If the regulator finds a company in violation of the Digital Markets Act, the fine can be up to 10% of the company’s annual global revenue; companies that violate the Digital Services Law will face a fine of 6% of the global annual revenue.
Source : europarl
