Big Tech Companies Could Face More Rules in the EU
May 10 2017 - 6:04AM
Dow Jones News
By Natalia Drozdiak
BRUSSELS--Tech companies in Europe face the prospect of more
rules dictating how they conduct business.
The European Union's executive body is considering rules that
would prevent web platforms, such as Alphabet Inc.'s Google,
Amazon.com Inc. or TripAdvisor Inc., from offering unfair terms to
small businesses that use their services to sell or promote
products.
The European Commission on Wednesday said it wants to address
complaints by businesses about unilateral contract changes, lack of
access to essential sales and customer data and poor transparency
regarding companies' rankings in search results. Companies also
lack redress possibilities to resolve disputes, the EU said.
"It's quite clear to us that the platforms are gatekeepers and
in the business-to-business relationships there are a certain
number of problems," said Jörgen Gren, a senior EU official
involved in the initiative.
The commission said it would carry out detailed analysis to
decide by year-end whether new legislation is needed. Brussels
initially flagged the concerns of businesses about transparency on
platforms last May.
The plan to further scrutinize web platforms' operations comes
as part of the commission's midterm review of its Digital Single
Market project, through which the EU aims to translate its single
market in goods and services among its 28 member states into the
online space. The project entails more than a dozen legislative and
other initiatives, such as harmonizing the bloc's data protection
rules and ensuring consumers can shop across borders online.
The commission's deliberations highlight ongoing concerns in top
European policy circles about the power of U.S. technology
companies, which had sparked a flurry of investigations, including
a lengthy EU antitrust probe into Google. Both Brussels and
national capitals are cracking down on how tech companies operate
here regarding issues such as data privacy, copyrights and
taxes.
At the same time, the commission is eager to promote small
businesses and entrepreneurs at a time when the bloc is still
suffering from a generally weak job market. Seeking to create jobs,
the commission has encouraged the growth of the so-called sharing
economy--platforms like Uber Technologies Inc. that link service
providers to consumers.
The EU on Wednesday said it would also in the coming months
publish guidance to encourage technology firms to more quickly
remove hate speech and extremist rhetoric from their platforms. The
commission wants to clarify minimum requirements for takedown
procedures, such as whether a form of acknowledgment of receipt by
the platform is needed when a user sends a notice to take down
certain content.
"It seems there is a need to clarify what this notice and action
really means," said Andrus Ansip, commission vice president for the
digital economy, who also said the commission had no plans to
propose concrete legislation in the area but rather preferred
companies to regulate themselves.
Internet companies have faced increased pressure from
authorities to accelerate removal of terrorist content and hate
speech after a number of deadly terror attacks in Europe in recent
months.
The companies already try to remove illegal information when it
is reported, but face criticism they don't do so rapidly enough or
take enough of the content down. The tech firms say they are wary
of initiatives that infringe on freedom of expression.
Write to Natalia Drozdiak at natalia.drozdiak@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
May 10, 2017 05:49 ET (09:49 GMT)
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