European Commission Soon To Pass Big Tech Anti-monopoly Bill With EU Parliament

Margrethe Vestager, head of antitrust Europe. (photo; twitter @vestager)

JAKARTA - The European Commission is targeting to reach a speedy agreement with EU parliamentarians and countries by the end of March. The deal is about new rules for controlling Alphabet's powers of Google, Amazon, Apple, Facebook Meta Platform Inc, and Microsoft.

Margrethe Vestager, head of antitrust Europe on Wednesday, March 16, said there had been good progress in negotiations to bring this deal to fruition. Vestager had proposed the Digital Markets Act more than a year ago with a list of do's and don'ts for the US tech giant.

Social media can bring people together for a positive change but also spread manipulation & hate speech in extreme ways. With #DSA we want to ensure a human-centric digitalization & pave the way for a dynamic online debate: Free from hate speech or other illegal content https://t.co/I0E3zvIM9Z

— Margrethe Vestager (@vestager) March 15, 2022

"We are now aiming to reach a political agreement by the fourth trilogy by the end of March. If we set it up, it will become law at almost lightning speed," she told a European Parliament hearing quoted by Reuters. The talks will resume on March 24.

Issues that need to be resolved include a list of obligations for online gatekeepers, such as companies controlling data and access to their platforms. In addition, the turnover rate determines which companies will be covered by the DMA.

Another issue is whether the EU executive should take full responsibility for the enforcement of the proposed law at the expense of national watchdogs. This bill will allow big tech from the US to get stricter supervision in Europe.