European Union law regulating big tech comes into force; understand

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The Digital Markets Law affects services from Apple, Alphabet, Amazon, ByteDance, Meta and Microsoft, and changes their operations in the European bloc. Facebook, Apple, Google and Microsoft Montagem/Reuters The Digital Markets Law (DMA) came into force this Thursday (7), a European Union regulation that deals with the activity of technology giants and competition between them . The law defines rules for companies that have more than 45 million users in the European bloc, which affects Apple, Alphabet (Google), Amazon, ByteDance (TikTok), Meta (Instagram and Facebook) and Microsoft. With the DMA in force, the European Union will be able to carry out permanent reviews of 22 services. Among them are Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp, LinkedIn, YouTube, Maps, Chrome, Safari, Android, iOS, Windows and the Amazon marketplace. The European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, highlighted that, from today onwards, companies “must fully comply with all their obligations” set out in the DMA. If companies fail to comply with the rules, the Commission may impose fines of up to 10% of the violator’s global annual revenue. The penalty can reach 20% of revenue in the event of a repeat offense. 🔎 The DMA determines that technology giants must: inform the EU of any relevant acquisition they make; offer European users more web browser and search engine options; soon allow users to send messages between applications, for example, from WhatsApp to Telegram; prove their compliance with the DMA and present “an independently audited description of the techniques used to define user profiles, together with a non-confidential version” – the reports will be analyzed by the commission, which will decide whether the measures are effective in achieving the objective of complying with the law. What changes in practice? Users in the European Union will have the right to easily choose the default browser and search engine for their cell phones and computers. The idea is to prevent them from being induced to choose Safari, Apple’s browser, on the iPhone or Google’s search engine on Android. Furthermore, Apple should allow alternative stores to the App Store, which already exists on Android. Searches on Google must also respect the new law, and the company’s services, such as Google Flights, cannot be privileged over its competitors. According to the commission, with the new rules, “consumers will have more and better services to choose from, more opportunities to change suppliers if they wish, direct access to services and fairer prices”. In the statement, the European Commissioner for the Internal Market, Thierry Breton, stated that the day represents a “turning point for the European digital space”. But analysts acknowledge that it may not be realistic to expect full and immediate compliance. For Bram Vranken, researcher at the Corporate Europe Observatory, “getting big technology companies to comply with these new rules will be a huge task.” Eight years after the data protection law, “the EU is still fighting for Facebook to respect the privacy of millions of people in Europe”, noted the expert. In 2023, the EU imposed a fine of 1.2 billion euros (around R$6.29 billion at the time) on Meta for data privacy violations. READ ALSO: Fortnite owner says Apple closed her developer account In a ‘fight’ with Spotify, Apple is fined 1.8 billion euros in the European Union Apple Vision Pro makes you ‘enter’ videos with an excellent screen, but need more apps; g1 experienced Difficult enforcement EU countries are pushing the European Commission to focus its efforts on enforcing at least nine important laws covering the digital space, created since 2019. Analysts, however, are pushing the EU to be realistic about enforcement resources. that you will need. “MEPs underestimate the challenge of implementing and enforcing the recent wave of digital laws,” said Zach Meyers, of the Center for European Reform think tank, in a February report. The sheer volume of new laws, Meyers argued, “creates the risk that the Commission and national authorities will not have the resources to implement them adequately.” The vice-president of the European Commission, Margrethe Vestager, highlighted that the body is strengthening supervision, but recognizes that it is necessary to establish priorities between cases. “We will see some compliance, full compliance from some companies. But I believe there will be cases of non-compliance,” said Vestager, adding that the bloc will not hesitate to use the toughest measures provided for in the law. The Commission currently has 80 people monitoring compliance with the DMA, according to a spokesperson for the institution. At the same time, it has 123 full-time employees focused on enforcing the Digital Services Act (DSA), a content moderation law that complements the DMA. Meta and TikTok admitted in 2023 that each had more than 1,000 people working on implementing the DSA. Google claims to have “thousands of engineers” working just to comply with the DMA. Apple Vision Pro: see first impressions of virtual reality glasses Apple Vision Pro: see first impressions of virtual reality glasses Almost 10 years later, a viral dress continues to generate controversy Almost 10 years later, a viral dress continues to generate controversy Mark Zuckerberg apologizes for damage caused to his social networks Mark Zuckerberg apologizes for damage caused to his social networks

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