European Union (EU) lawmakers have approved landmark legislation to tightly regulate Apple, Google, Meta and other Big Tech.
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The Digital Markets Act (DMA) and the Digital Services Act (DSA) were proposed by the European Commission in December 2020. Now, bundled into a “Digital Services Package”, the legislation has been approved by the European Parliament and seeks to address “gatekeeper” big tech companies.
Apple is almost certain to be classified as a “gatekeeper”, due to the size of its annual turnover in the EU, its ownership and operation of platforms with a large number of active users and its “established and resilient position” it has met these criteria and will therefore be subject to the rules set out in the DMA.
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Gatekeepers should do the following:
- Allow users to install apps from third-party app stores and sideload directly from the internet.
- Allow developers to offer third-party payment systems in apps and promote offers outside of gatekeeper platforms
- Allow developers to integrate their applications and digital services directly with those owned by a gatekeeper.
- Give developers access to any hardware feature
- Make messaging, voice and video calling services interoperable with third-party services upon request.
- Ensure that users have the right to unsubscribe from basic platform under similar conditions as subscription.
- Make sure all applications can be uninstalled.
- Give users the option to change their default voice assistant to a third-party choice.
- Share data and metrics with developers and competitors, including marketing and advertising performance data.
- Establish an independent “compliance function” to monitor its compliance with EU law with an independent senior executive and sufficient authority, resources and access to management.
- To inform the European Commission about their mergers and acquisitions.
But they cannot do the following:
- Get preferential treatment on their own products, applications or services.
- Reuse private data collected during one service for the purposes of another service.
- Pre-install some software applications.
- Require app developers to use certain services in order to be listed in app stores.
- Require developers to use a specific browser engine, such as WebKit.
Also passed was the Digital Services Act (DSA), which requires platforms to do more to police the internet for illegal content.
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The DMA says gatekeepers who ignore the rules will face fines of up to 10 percent of the company’s total global annual turnover, or 20 percent in the case of repeated violations. When gatekeepers commit “systemic violations,” the European Commission will be able to impose additional sanctions, such as forcing a gatekeeper to sell a business or parts of it, including units, assets, intellectual property rights or trademarks.
Source of information: macrumors.com
