Faced with Internet giants, Europe revises its competition law

Return ""to chaos"" to the internet "".This is the promise asserted Tuesday by Margrethe Vestager, during the presentation of the ""Digital Services Act"".The vice-president of the European Commission in charge of digital and competition lifted the veil on this new long-awaited legislative arsenal, alongside Thierry Breton, European commissioner for the internal market.

In preparation for a year, this legislative ""package"" is made up of two major regulations: ""Digital Services Act"" (DSA) and ""Digital Markets Act"" (DMA).They will allow the e-commerce directive to be updated, in force since 2000...A time when Google, Amazon and Microsoft were still in their infancy, when Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Snapchat and other social networks were not even born yet.If these companies have started as a simple search engine, online sales site or social network, they now offer a multitude of services that allow them to cover whole sections of the digital economy.

Read also: Digital Services Act (2/2): The Empires of the Giants of the Net finally under pressure?

Adapt European law to the digital age

The idea is therefore to adapt European law to the digital age to meet the many challenges posed by Internet giants, such as the plagues of online hatred and disinformation, but also the abuse of dominant position.

And to continue: ""These are the two facets of the same world.We should be able to shop safely and trust the information we read.Because what is illegal offline is also illegal online.""

Le ""Digital Service Act"" va redéfinir la responsabilité des grandes plateformes (comme Facebook, Twitter, YouTube...) on the side of online hatred, the disinformation and proliferation of counterfeit products.The principle: the more a user account platform, the more it generates audience and the more its responsibilities and its reaction capacities must be important.

Read also: Digital Services Act (1/2): How Europe attacks online hatred and disinformation

Strengthen the fight against illicit content

Thus, the largest players - those counting more than 45 million users, or 10% of the EU population - will be imposed on means of means (humans or automated) to guarantee their ability to intervene quickly and remove theillicit contents.

The Commission, which wants to force platforms to be more open, proposes the principle of transparency of algorithms. ""Il n'est pas toujours évident de comprendre pourquoi un vendeur est mieux positionné par rapport à un concurrent sur un site de vente en ligne... Désormais, les plateformes devront expliquer le fonctionnement de leurs algorithmes - sans pour autant les révéler en détail - pour que nous comprenions qui influence nos décisions sur Internet"", a détaillé Margrethe Vestager.

Regarding counterfeiting on the Internet, platforms that allow you to sell online will now have to control the identity of resellers before authorizing them on their site.Recurrent fraudsters must be blocked.

To control these new obligations, each Member State must designate a national authority.In France, the CNIL (National Commission for Data Protection), the CSA (Superior Council for Audiovisual) or the ARCEP (regulatory authority for electronic communications, posts and distribution of the press)have been mentioned.At European level, national authorities will form a permanent council to ensure global follow -up.

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Read also: Digital Services Act (1/2): How Europe attacks online hatred and disinformation

Identify structuring platforms

Le deuxième volet, via le ""Digital Markets Act"" (en français, Règlement sur les marchés numériques), vise à actualiser le droit actuel de la concurrence. A la différence du premier règlement - qui s'applique de façon horizontale à tous les acteurs du numérique - le DMA s'appliquera uniquement aux plateformes dites ""structurantes"", c'est-à-dire aux services devenus incontournables sur Internet.If the two commissioners refuse to name them explicitly, it is a question here of regulating the giants of the Internet, starting with the GAFA (Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon). C'est pourquoi la Commission européenne propose trois critères cumulatifs pour identifier les ""gatekeepers"", ces plateformes qui jouent un rôle de contrôleur d'accès.

Premièrement, avoir une ""taille d'entreprise qui impacte le marché intérieur"".This will be the case for any company offering a basic service in at least three EU member states and achieving an annual turnover of at least 6.5 billion euros in the last three fiscal years made inthe European economic space or an average market capitalization of at least 65 billion euros during the last financial year.

Deuxièmement, une plateforme sera jugée systémique si elle ""contrôle un ""gatekeeper"" pour les utilisateurs professionnels vers les consommateurs finaux"".This will be the case if a company operates a platform claiming more than 45 million monthly active internet users and more than 10.000 active professionals annual in the EU during the last financial year.This particular case makes it possible to target the platforms on which thousands of other companies depend, such as Amazon, which allows VSEs/SMEs to sell their own products on its marketplace.

Enfin, si une entreprise cumule ces deux premiers critères au long cours, alors elle devrait répondre au troisième critère, qui consiste au fait d'occuper ""une position ancrée et durable"" au long cours.Ten companies would already enter these boxes: the essential Gafam (Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft), but also the Booking hotel booking site, the Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, the Chinese group bytedance (which holds the social network Tik tok), the American social network Snapchat and Samsung, according to a source close to the commission interviewed by AFP.

La Commission compte sur la collaboration des entreprises, qui devront dans un premier temps se définir elles-mêmes comme ""gatekeeper"" ou non.

Read also: Digital Services Act (2/2): The Empires of the Giants of the Net finally under pressure?

Supervise the use of data by internet giants

Lorsqu'une plateforme sera définie comme structurante, elle devra respecter une série d'interdictions et d'obligations pour ""garantir un environnement en ligne ouvert, équitable pour les entreprises et les consommateurs, et ouvert à l'innovation par tous"", selon le règlement.

In this perspective, a wide section of the regulations supervise the use of data.For example, internet giants will thus be prohibited from taking advantage of their professional customers data to compete with them - as Amazon is accused of doing so with the resellers of its platform.The platforms will also be forced to provide their client companies with access to the data they generate, and they will no longer be able to use data collected through several services to profile a user against their will.

Having to prevent users from uninstalling software or preinstalled applications will also be prohibited as this is considered obviously unfair. Autre apport majeur : les plateformes ""systémiques"" devront notifier à Bruxelles tout projet d'acquisition d'entreprise en Europe, quelle que soit la taille de la cible et le montant d'acquisition, afin de contrôler l'accaparement de l'innovation.

An entry into force hoped for by 2022

This is a radical change in paradigm for Europe, which now seeks to prevent abuse.Until now, the Commission was limited to simply sanctioning the drifts observed, like the fines imposed on Google in 2018 and 2019 for abuse of dominant position.

A hardening of sanctions is also proposed in the event of an offense.Fines of up to 6% of the company's annual turnover of the company as part of the DSA and 10% as part of the DMA are planned.In the event of a recurrence, the Commission proposes to go as far as excluding the single market or even the dismantling.

Le package doit désormais être négocié pendant au moins un an avec le Parlement européen et les Etats membres, pour une entrée en vigueur espérée dans ""les dix-huit prochains mois"", estime Margrethe Vestager.The advantage: unlike European directives, which must be transposed at national level by each of the Member States, the regulations can directly go into application throughout Europe from the vote of the European Parliament and the Member States agreements.

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