EU should focus on top 5 tech giants in Digital Markets Act negotiations, says MEP
European lawmaker, Andreas Schwab, who will lead the debate on the bloc’s flagship tech regulation, called for focus to be on top 5 US giants.
The EU is in talks about how to be tougher on big tech and especially Google, Apple, Amazon, Facebook and Microsoft as they have repeatedly caused problems for the bloc’s competition policy.
Last December Brussels unveiled its intentions to tackle the market power of Big Tech with its Digital Markets Act. There are currently 20 companies that would be affected by regulations.
But in a new report, to be released on Monday, Schwab called for higher thresholds of €100bn market capitalisation, rather than €65bn in the original proposals, and of €10bn turnover in the last three financial years, rather than €6.5bn.
He also called for more transparency from these firms. Companies should outline the ways they make money from online ads.
“Let’s focus first on the biggest problems, on the biggest bottlenecks. Let’s go down the line — one, two, three, four, five — and maybe six with Alibaba,” he told the Financial Times.
“But let’s not start with number 7 to include a European tech giant just to please [US president Joe] Biden,” he added.
“The scope of the [Digital Markets Act] should be clearly targeted to those companies, which play an unquestionable role as gatekeeper due to their size and their impact on the internal market,” the report said.