France and Netherlands join the EU's campaign against Big Tech
France and the Netherlands have joined the EU's call to break up big US tech companies in an attempt to curb their market power.
This comes as an initiative to ensure American Big Tech does not monopolise the European market by introducing preemptive measures and extra regulations that apply to companies with a significant market presence as a part of an EU bid to increase competition within the sector.
France's digital minister, Cedric O, and the Netherlands' state secretary for digital affairs, Mona Keijzer, have signed a position paper calling on regulators in Brussels to take swift action against emerging giants on so-called "gatekeeper" platforms, which includes the option of breaking them up.
The document includes several ways regulators can contain the market presence of such companies, such as allowing Apple and Facebook users to upload their personal data to competing platforms or by banning companies such as Google to promote their own services as the expense of smaller rivals.
The two countries have long had differing views on how to best regulate the online tech industry, with the French government pushing for more stringent laws against illegal distribution and calling for strict data protection, while the Netherlands have generally had a more libertarian approach. However, the government have called for stricter rules to prevent such tech giants from favouring their own services at the expense of expunging their rivals from the market.
The Dutch minister said that breaking up big companies can be a possibility.
Ms Keijzer added that regulators should aim for rules that prevent platforms from growing too large in the first place.
Mr O, the French minister, said: "Breaking up companies is on the table. But this is the ultimate remedy. France and the Netherlands have different cultures and come from different positions. But now we have a common interest, from a sovereignty point of view, from a competition point of view to regulate big tech players."
The new regulations proposed by the EU have been accused of bias against US companies, which may only add to the growing tensions between Washington and Brussels.
Other European players, such as the UK, have already begun clamping down on Big Tech companies manipulating markets and stifling competition. However, companies such as Amazon are still finding loopholes to get around regulation by governments.
Furthermore, there has been a move to attempt to boost the comparatively-fledgeling European tech market by entrepreneurs. Spotify founder, Daniel Ek, is due to start funnelling a large portion of his wealth into European startups to compete with the likes of Silicon Valley.
The EU has also begun drafting up rules for the Digital Markets Act, which prohibits things such as anti-competitive behaviour and removing the need for lengthy antitrust investigations that often achieve nothing.
They are also working on an overhaul of the existing Digital Services Act, which will leek to legislate on illegal conduct, disinformation and transparency.
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