The European Commission is working on a proposal for new legislation that will allow the EU to put more pressure on tech giants. EU Commissioner Thierry Breton tells the Financial Times that the big tech companies are too big and that more supervision is needed. In addition, Europe must be able to do more against tech companies that abuse their power.
The European Commission is working on a proposal for new legislation that will allow the EU to put more pressure on tech giants. EU Commissioner Thierry Breton tells the Financial Times that the big tech companies are too big and that more supervision is needed. In addition, Europe must be able to do more against tech companies that abuse their power.
According to Breton, in an extreme case it should be possible to force large tech companies to split up. If it turns out that tech giants take too little account of consumers and hinder healthy competition, the Commissioner wants Brussels to be able to intervene.
According to Breton, the proposals of the European Commission should be ready later this year. Then they still have to be approved by the European Parliament and the European Council.
It is not the first time that the dominance of large tech companies such as Google and Facebook and how these companies deal with user data has been critically examined. Both Google and Facebook have already been fined in Europe because the concerns did not comply with the rules.
The possible abuse of power by tech giants is also being investigated in the United States. US FTC Chairman Joe Simons called splitting up major tech companies an option last December.
