EU turns its guns on US big tech
Despite the efforts of its many lobbyists in Europe, the collective known as GAMAM (Google, Amazon, Meta, Apple and Microsoft) will find itself increasingly in the sights of European regulators, with some more willing to pull the trigger than in the past.
Even the Irish Data Protection Authority (DPA), which has been historically reluctant to pursue the tech giants that call the country home due to its low tax regime, and widely criticised by other DPAs, has been making concerned noises about Twitter's shedding of staff responsible for complying with GDPR. The regulator also fined Meta €265 million this year for data scraping. Small potatoes relatively speaking of course, but perhaps demonstrating a hardening of attitudes in the bloc.
Behind this is the arrival of the Digital Services Act (DSA) in 2024, which will allow EU courts to fine companies up to 6% of their global turnover for violating the rules. These include banning advertising aimed at children, failing to remove illegal content, forcing social media platforms to make it easy for users to flag illegal content, and making retail platforms remove fraudulent of fake products once identified.
While the law moves slowly, already this year the EU said it and the UK are suing Google an eyewatering (even for them) €25 billion for digital ad malpractice; forced Apple to adopt standard USB chargers; and announced a GDPR investigation into AWS and Azure contracts with EU bodies. This comes as individual countries have advised against the use of Microsoft 365 and Google Analytics.
Just last week, AWS and the EU reached an agreement that halted an antitrust case, in what was seen as a climbdown by the US giant. Expect much more to come in 2023.
So that's what we see as the most likely course for tech next year. What do you think will happen?
