EU hits Big Tech giants including Apple, Amazon and Meta with tougher market curbs
European Union flags
Tech giants including Apple, Facebook owner Meta and TikTok parent ByteDance will now face the new and toughest-ever EU restraints under the Digital Markets Act (DMA) on the ways they conduct their respective businesses.
The European Commission, the European Union's most powerful body, unveiled a list on Wednesday (September 6), naming 22 "core platform" services belonging to six big US tech players designated as "gatekeepers": Google parent Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft and China's ByteDance.
Brussels is working through a legislative plan to construct more stringent rules for big tech, asserting that it needs to safeguard European consumers online.
The move has reportedly also been taken to create competition in the market which is primarily dominated by the US tech giants.
Services that will be impacted by the stricter laws include Apple's App Store; Meta's Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp; Google's YouTube video platform and Chrome browser; as well as Apple's Safari. Operating systems from Apple, Microsoft, Google and Alphabet's Google Maps, Play and Shopping will also be affected by the new law.
'Gatekeepers'
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Targeting the world's leading tech companies' market influence, the Digital Markets Act (DMA) is one of the world's most stringent pieces of legislation which is aimed at making it more manageable for users to move between contending services, such as social media platforms, internet browsers and app stores.
The EU Commission specified 22 services of the top tech companies as "gatekeepers" of online services.
This means that such businesses will now have to make their messaging apps interoperate with competitors and let users decide as to which applications to pre-install on their devices.
Also, under the DMA, the services will have to take the user's direct consent before tracking their activities for advertising purposes.
The firms have six months to comply.
Apple reacts
Apple, while expressing concerns over the tough new EU curbs, spokeWednesday aboutthe risks posed by the landmark digital markets law.
"We remain very concerned about the privacy and data security risks the DMA poses for our users. Our focus will be on how we mitigate these impacts," Apple said in a statement, referring to the EU Digital Markets Act.
Microsoft released a statement accepting its designation as gatekeeper, while also welcoming the commission's decision to open a probe into a possible exemption of Microsoft's services Bing, Edge and Microsoft Ads from the DMA.
Facebook parent company Meta said it was assessing the commission's designation.
(With inputs from agencies)
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