Send messages from WhatsApp to Telegram or Signal, just as you can now send emails from Hotmail to Gmail. It will soon be possible thanks to two new European laws. The power of the tech giants is being severely limited.

For example, you will soon be able to delete all pre-installed apps on a phone (except the calling app) and large tech Companies will no longer be allowed to give their own products a higher ranking in, for example, the app store or in search results.

After the Digital Markets Act (DMA) was approved by the European Parliament in December, it was the turn of the Digital Services Act (DSA) last week.

Hate speech

“The laws are aimed at providers of online services and the largest platforms. The DSA clarifies the responsibilities of parties in the digital ecosystem. For example, internet platforms must take action against illegal content, such as terrorist content and hate speech,” says ICT lawyer Philip Van Der Weijde.

The two laws are complementary to each other. The DMA contains a number of specific rules for the largest platforms, the so-called gatekeepers. “This law is aimed at creating fair competition. After all, the gatekeepers often determine how other companies can use their services.”

The laws have not yet been set in stone. The European Parliament and the Council of the EU, in which the Member States are represented, must also agree on the final text.

The rules on the internet have barely changed since the turn of the century. The big Tech Companies determine what we see and also which software we use. With their algorithms you are often presented with what is lucrative for those tech companies.

Pre-installed apps

Consider, for example, Google Maps, which is pre-installed on Android phones and cannot be removed, while there are also other good route planners.

And Apple determines who gets access to the market with its App Store. The company asks for 15 to 30 percent of the revenue from companies that sell apps through the Apple Store. The company also determines what apps are and are not allowed to do. Europe will now update its internet rules.

The obligation for interoperability that will be introduced is important, according to Van der Weijde, who is director at ICTRecht in Amsterdam. Systems must be able to work together without problems. As a KPN customer, you can also call a Vodafone customer or send an email from Hotmail to Gmail. Many apps do not yet have this collaboration.

Don’t resist

“This mandatory interoperability will ensure that WhatsApp users will soon be able to send messages to Telegram users, for example. However, there must be a party that will arrange this and make communication possible. The large tech companies should not hinder it, but they do not have to do it either. to arrange.”

Consumers get more rights. Now, for example, Facebook or Twitter may delete your messages and the company does not owe you an explanation.

“Soon, users of various services will have to be informed if their content is removed. It is an infringement of freedom of expression, so users will also have the opportunity to object.” This is already possible with some platforms, but it has not yet been legally established.

Fine print

Anyone who installs an app now must agree to the small print in advance. Services such as Google also have user conditions. Often written in difficult language and many people therefore immediately approve the conditions without reading them.

“With regard to usage restrictions and specific parts of the services, such as content moderation, the fine print should be much clearer from now on,” says Van der Weijde.

Also important: if an advertisement is shown, it must be clear why the user is seeing it. “Although the question remains how this will be achieved in practice.”

Amazon
Not only consumers benefit from the new rules. Companies do that too. Numerous companies sell their products not only in their own webshop, but also via a sales platform such as Amazon.

“However, the seller does not have full access to the customer data of the people who have just purchased something.”

That increases the power of Amazon, which receives a commission on sales. If you do not have all the customer data, you will remain highly dependent. That will change, because the data will have to be shared.

Strong lobby

The new rules from the DMA only apply to the gatekeepers, the large internet companies with a lot of power. To avoid much discussion about this, the concept of ‘active users’ has been changed at the last minute to ‘unique users’. Van der Weijde is positive about the tightening in the latest version of the legal text.

“The ambiguity has largely been removed. Multiple visits by the same user within a specific period are now regarded as just one visit. This adjustment makes it clearer to companies when the DMA applies to them.”

Stricter regime for growth

It is clear that parties such as Google, Meta (Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp) and Twitter have a lot of power. “But other companies may also emerge. Whether you are considered a gatekeeper and which rules apply depends on the decision of the European Commission.”

It may mean that as a company you suddenly have to deal with a different regime when you grow larger and that it is not clear in advance which rules exactly apply.

Hefty fines

Of course, it is checked whether the tech companies comply with the law. Companies that do not comply with the DMA can be fined between 4 and 20 percent of their global annual turnover. Companies that violate the DSA can be fined by the European Commission up to 6 percent of their global annual turnover.

It is unclear exactly how major parties such as Google and Meta view the new rules.

“We share the goal of the Members of the European Parliament to make the Internet safer for everyone. We will now take some time to analyze the text of the European laws to understand how they may affect us and our different users,” a Google spokesperson told RTL Z.

‘Delicate compromise’
Meta refers to a position of the Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA), of which Meta is a part, as are other major parties such as Intel, eBay, Apple, Google and Twitter. In the statement, the CCIA speaks of a ‘delicate compromise’. The association hints that it will lobby to have some parts, for example around advertisements, removed from the law.

“We urge negotiators to consider the impact of restrictions on personalized advertising, broad know-your-business-consumer obligations, and disclosure of data to law enforcement and researchers.