EU Digital market act

Andreas Schwab, the EPP MEP leading the negotiations over the Digital Markets Act, said: “I am satisfied that the parliament is sending a united message to the market, which is ‘game over with unfair business practices in digital markets’.” The proposed rules will also boost the power of national competition authorities to scrutinise tech companies’ acquisitions of smaller rivals, following fears they are buying competitors on the cheap to “kill” challengers.

“The political wind is behind these set of new rules,” said a person directly involved in the discussions. The European parliament’s main political parties agreed a deal that would apply to companies with a market capitalisation of at least €80bn that offer at least one internet service, such as online search, according to four people with direct knowledge of the discussions. The centre-right European People’s party, whose members include the party of Germany chancellor Angela Merkel and European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen, wanted a more focused regulation targeting only the largest tech companies. The Socialists & Democrats, the second-largest political party in the European parliament, had been pushing for the rules to be widely drawn so that more companies would be subject to regulation.

Summarised www.sba.tax

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