Europe’s Battle Against Big Tech: Dominance, Data, and Disinformation
The European Commission, which declared on Thursday an investigation into Microsoft’s promotion of its Teams messaging app, has been engaged in battles against American tech giants on various issues such as tax evasion, spreading false information and hate speech, safeguarding data privacy, and preventing monopolistic practices.
Here’s a rundown of the fights between Silicon Valley and Brussels.
– Stifles competition –
The European Commission announced on Thursday that it will investigate whether Microsoft is “abusing and defending its market position” by combining its Teams application with Office software.
It comes a month after the commission recommended Google sell some of its business following a two-year investigation into the ruling online advertising.
If Google doesn’t comply, it could face a fine of up to 10 percent of its global revenue under the 2022 Digital Markets Act.
Brussels has already fined Google more than eight billion euros for abusing its dominant market position.
In 2018, the company was fined 4.3 billion euros ($4.8 billion) — the largest antitrust penalty ever imposed by the EU — for abusing its dominant position in the Android mobile operating system to promote its search engine.
The fine was later reduced to 4.1 billion euros.
The company has also been fined more than a billion for abuse of power in online shopping and advertising.
Apple has also been in the EU’s sights as Brussels has investigated its dominance among music streaming apps.
– Taxation –
The EU has failed to get tech companies to pay more taxes in Europe, where they are accused of shifting profits to low-tax economies such as Ireland and Luxembourg.
In one of the most high-profile cases, the European Commission found in 2016 that Ireland granted illegal tax benefits to Apple and ordered the company to pay €13 billion in back taxes.
The General Court of the EU later overturned the decision, saying there was no evidence that the company had broken the rules. The Commission appealed the decision immediately.
The Commission also lost a similar case against Amazon, which it had ordered to return 250 million euros in taxes to Luxembourg.
In October 2021, the G20 group of countries agreed on a minimum tax rate of 15 percent after extensive lobbying by European countries.
– Privacy –
Brussels has also imposed billions in fines for breaching data protection rules.
Ireland, home to several major tech companies in Europe, has hit Metal with a series of eye-popping fines.
They include a record penalty of 1.2 billion euros in May for the illegal transfer of personal data between Europe and the United States.
Amazon previously held the record after Luxembourg fined it €746 million in July 2021 for violating the EU’s 2018 General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
– Disinformation, hate speech –
For years, online platforms have been accused of failing to fight hate speech, disinformation and piracy.
The EU passed the Digital Services Act last year to force major online companies to address these problems or face fines of up to six percent of their global turnover.
Nineteen major platforms will be required to comply with the law as of August 25 this year, including TikTok, Instagram and Twitter, which will now be rebranded as “X.”
– Paying for news –
Google and other online platforms have also been accused of making billions from news without sharing the revenue with those who collect it.
To solve this problem, the EU created a form of copyright called “neighboring rights” that allows print media to claim compensation for the use of content.
After initial opposition, Google and Facebook agreed to pay French media for articles displayed in online searches. Google has reached an agreement with AFP on related rights.
