EU Parliamentarian Welcomes Tech Antitrust Push in Congress

Leah Nylen, Bloomberg News

(Bloomberg) -- The European Union lawmaker behind the bloc’s new gatekeeper rules for digital platforms endorsed US congressional efforts to rein in the largest technology companies, saying regulators can be more effective by acting together.

“It will be a strong signal to the markets, but also to the citizens that we defend their interests together,” Andreas Schwab, who led the negotiations for Europe’s Digital Markets Act in the European Parliament, said in an interview in Washington on Thursday.

Schwab, a Parliament member from Germany, met with Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, Republican Senator Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee and Representative David Cicilline, a Rhode Island Democrat.

Klobuchar and Blackburn are the lead sponsors of US antitrust legislation intended to foster competition among the largest tech companies -– bills substantially similar to the Digital Markets Act.

Cicilline, who is chair of the House Judiciary Antitrust Subcommittee, is leading that chamber’s push to rein in online platforms with a similar package of bills.

The EU regulations, set to take effect next year, would bar so-called “gatekeepers” like Meta Platforms Inc.’s Facebook and Amazon.com Inc., from favoring their own products and require explicit user consent to combine personal data in order to target advertising. It also would force Apple and Alphabet Inc.’s Google to ensure fair access to their app stores.

The new rules would apply to companies whose market value exceeds 75 billion euros ($82.6 billion) and have at least 45 million monthly end users and 10,000 yearly business users. The EU won’t designate gatekeepers until next year, though the law is expected to apply to the five largest US tech platforms -- Apple Inc., Amazon, Meta, Google and Microsoft Corp. -- as well as China’s Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and Bytedance Inc.’s TikTok Inc. Online marketplaces Zalando SE and Booking Holdings Inc. may also be affected.

Klobuchar’s bill would similarly bar large tech platforms companies from favoring their own products while Blackburn’s measure focuses on app stores.

“We want this to be done together because it’s a common Western world principle,” Schwab said. “The more we can partner, the better for everyone.”