Some of the world’s biggest tech companies and more than 20 of their services will have to overhaul how they do business under new EU laws, it has emerged.
Under the new Digital Markets Act, six companies, including Microsoft and TikTok, will have to share data with rivals, make their services interoperable with rival apps and link to competitors, two people with direct knowledge of the matter said.
Amazon Marketplace, Apple’s App Store, Meta’s WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram and Google’s Search and YouTube are among the services set to be affected by the new law, which is designed to foster greater competition in the sector in Europe, the people said.
The European Commission, the EU’s executive body, has yet to decide if Apple’s iMessage and Microsoft’s Bing will be designated “gatekeeper” services after the companies pushed back, two people with knowledge of the matter said.
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Under the act, so-called gatekeepers must have a yearly turnover of more than €7.5 billion, a market cap above €75 billion and active monthly users in the EU of 45 million, though EU regulators have discretion over the designation beyond these metrics.
Microsoft has said Bing should not be subject to the same obligations as its larger competitor, Google Search. Apple has also argued that iMessage does not have the numbers required to fall within the scope of the new rules.
The commission is already braced for legal challenges by some of these large tech companies, multiple people with knowledge of the EU’s thinking said.
Retailers Amazon and Zalando have taken Brussels to court over their obligations under the Digital Services Act (DSA), a separate piece of legislation aimed at clarifying how Big Tech should police the internet.
The DSA imposes new standards for policing hate speech, disinformation and counterfeits online that all large digital platforms must comply with. These platforms argue they have been unfairly targeted.
Details of the services covered by the new rules came as Margrethe Vestager, a former competition commissioner, became an official candidate for the presidency of the European Investment Bank. Belgian commissioner Didier Reynders will take over her competition portfolio while she takes unpaid leave from the commission.
New obligations for tech companies also come at a time of heightened scrutiny of their actions in Europe. Ms Vestager this year threatened to break up Google, and the EU is set to block Booking’s acquisition of Etraveli as regulators take a closer look at tech deals. – Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2023
