TechCentralTechCentral
    Facebook Twitter YouTube LinkedIn
    Facebook Twitter LinkedIn YouTube
    TechCentral TechCentral
    NEWSLETTER
    • News

      New Openview channels coming as platform turns profitable

      27 May 2022

      Wapa’s Paul Colmer on why Icasa should open up 6GHz for Wi-Fi

      27 May 2022

      How Broadcom’s blockbuster VMware deal happened

      27 May 2022

      The cost for South Africa to quit its coal habit: R4-trillion – study

      26 May 2022

      Apple is feeling the smartphone industry chill

      26 May 2022
    • World

      Musk sued by Twitter investors for stock ‘manipulation’

      27 May 2022

      Broadcom agrees to buy VMware for $61-billion

      26 May 2022

      Musk pledges more equity to fund Twitter deal

      26 May 2022

      Sony looks beyond the console to PC and mobile gaming

      26 May 2022

      Andreessen Horowitz raises world’s largest crypto fund

      26 May 2022
    • In-depth

      Bernie Fanaroff – the scientist who put African astronomy on the map

      23 May 2022

      Chip giant ASML places big bets on a tiny future

      20 May 2022

      Elon Musk is becoming like Henry Ford – and that’s not a good thing

      17 May 2022

      Stablecoins wend wobbly way into the unknown

      17 May 2022

      The standard model of particle physics may be broken

      11 May 2022
    • Podcasts

      Spectrum auction opens up big growth opportunities – Ruckus Networks

      26 May 2022

      Everything PC S01E03 – ‘The story of Intel – part 1’

      25 May 2022

      The rewarding and lucrative careers to be had in infosec

      23 May 2022

      Dean Broadley on why product design at Yoco is an evolving art

      18 May 2022

      Everything PC S01E02 – ‘AMD: Ryzen from the dead – part 2’

      17 May 2022
    • Opinion

      A proposed solution to crypto’s stablecoin problem

      19 May 2022

      From spectrum to roads, why fixing SA’s problems is an uphill battle

      19 April 2022

      How AI is being deployed in the fight against cybercriminals

      8 April 2022

      Cash is still king … but not for much longer

      31 March 2022

      Icasa on the role of TV white spaces and dynamic spectrum access

      31 March 2022
    • Company Hubs
      • 1-grid
      • Altron Document Solutions
      • Amplitude
      • Atvance Intellect
      • Axiz
      • BOATech
      • CallMiner
      • Digital Generation
      • E4
      • ESET
      • Euphoria Telecom
      • IBM
      • Kyocera Document Solutions
      • Microsoft
      • Nutanix
      • One Trust
      • Pinnacle
      • Skybox Security
      • SkyWire
      • Tarsus on Demand
      • Videri Digital
      • Zendesk
    • Sections
      • Banking
      • Broadcasting and Media
      • Cloud computing
      • Consumer electronics
      • Cryptocurrencies
      • Education and skills
      • Energy
      • Fintech
      • Information security
      • Internet and connectivity
      • Internet of Things
      • Investment
      • IT services
      • Motoring and transport
      • Public sector
      • Science
      • Social media
      • Talent and leadership
      • Telecoms
    • Advertise
    TechCentralTechCentral
    Home»Sections»Investment»New EU rules regulating US tech giants likely to set global standard

    New EU rules regulating US tech giants likely to set global standard

    Investment By Agency Staff25 March 2022
    Facebook Twitter LinkedIn WhatsApp Telegram Email
    Margrethe Vestager

    Landmark EU rules targeting Google, Amazon.com, Apple, Meta Platforms and Microsoft are likely to set a global benchmark and may even force changes in the tech giants’ business models, lawyers and experts said.

    Europe’s antitrust chief, Margrethe Vestager, on Thursday won backing from European Union members and EU lawmakers for her proposal, the Digital Markets Act (DMA), to rein in the powers of the tech giants via legislation for the first time, rather than lengthy antitrust investigations.

    The DMA sets out a list of dos and don’ts targeting each tech giant’s core business practices.

    The flexibility that big tech had will be constrained, as the regulatory ‘straitjacket’ will get tighter globally

    “DMA is here to stay and will be quickly mirrored in a number of countries. The flexibility that big tech had will be constrained, as the regulatory ‘straitjacket’ will get tighter globally,” said Ioannis Kokkoris, competition law professor at Queen Mary University in London.

    Vestager’s switch to legislation came amid frustration over slow-moving antitrust investigations that deliver remedies criticised by rivals as inadequate, with Google often cited as an example despite being hit with more than €8-billion in fines.

    The new rules may even spur tech giants to rethink their strategy on long-term goals and swap their business models for others.

    “If it succeeds, the DMA will put pressure on monopoly rents of gatekeepers in tipped markets, thereby encouraging them to move towards more long-term innovation targets,” said Nicolas Petit, professor of competition law at the European University Institute in Florence.

    “I think the DMA indirectly places a premium on business models based on subscriptions or device-level monetisation. We might see more [increased] prices, and vertical integration into hardware in the future,” he said.

    Enforcement

    Still, enforcing the DMA will require a bigger team than the small group planned by the European Commission, said Thomas Vinje, a partner at law firm Clifford Chance in Brussels who has advised rivals in cases against Microsoft, Google and Apple.

    “The commission suggested upon proposing the DMA that it would be enforced by a team of 80 people. This will not be enough to enable effective enforcement,” he said.

    “Another big question is who in the commission will enforce it. Only DG Comp (competition officials) has the technical and industry knowledge and experience dealing with such companies to effectively enforce the DMA. If others in the commission, such as DG Connect (digital officials), are to enforce the DMA, it will be a dead letter.”

    The DMA is just the first step towards making sure that tech giants play fair, said Alec Burnside, a partner at law firm Dechert in Brussels.

    The degree of adverse impact on big tech will depend on the extent they can persuade the commission of the lack of any anticompetitive effect

    “The DMA is not a perfectly formed panacea from the start, and without doubt gatekeepers will try to navigate around it. Rome was not built in a day, nor was the highway code perfect when first conceived,” he said. “New rules of the road for the digital economy will be shaped over the period ahead, and the DMA is a crucially important first step.”

    There may be some wiggle room for the tech giants to dodge the full impact of the DMA, said Kokkoris.

    “The degree of adverse impact on big tech will depend on the extent they can persuade the commission of the lack of any anticompetitive effect,” he said.  — Foo Yun Chee, (c) 2022 Bloomberg LP

    Margrethe Vestager
    Share. Facebook Twitter LinkedIn WhatsApp Telegram Email
    Previous ArticleDecentralised finance, the ‘end of banks’ – and what comes next
    Next Article Outa takes aim at Sentech over ‘rushed’ set-top box tender

    Related Posts

    New Openview channels coming as platform turns profitable

    27 May 2022

    Wapa’s Paul Colmer on why Icasa should open up 6GHz for Wi-Fi

    27 May 2022

    Musk sued by Twitter investors for stock ‘manipulation’

    27 May 2022
    Add A Comment

    Comments are closed.

    Promoted

    Financial advisers: manage your commission and analyse revenue effortlessly

    27 May 2022

    BT, MTN Business form strategic alliance in Africa

    26 May 2022

    Think like a start-up: how to build a competitive digital enterprise

    26 May 2022
    Opinion

    A proposed solution to crypto’s stablecoin problem

    19 May 2022

    From spectrum to roads, why fixing SA’s problems is an uphill battle

    19 April 2022

    How AI is being deployed in the fight against cybercriminals

    8 April 2022

    Subscribe to Updates

    Get the best South African technology news and analysis delivered to your e-mail inbox every morning.

    © 2009 - 2022 NewsCentral Media

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.