Former EU Commissioner and now head of “an EU adapted to the digital age” Margrethe Vestager has set her sights on Apple, Google, Meta, Amazon, Tiktok and other technology giants.
In a long interview with The Verge, she talks about how the years as a commissioner have taught her that certain market problems lie in the system and not individual companies, and how the law on digital markets should work to create open markets.
When The Verge asks about companies that would rather pay fines than follow the rules, Margrether Vestager answers that it is not theory but reality, and gives Apple and the Netherlands as examples. Apple has still not done as the Dutch authority ACM decided.
Here, Margrethe Vestager says that the law on digital markets will have a toolbox with increasing penalties for companies that ignore the rules, including an opportunity to take the plunge and force a company to share.
The idea of the law is that a company should be classified as a so-called gatekeeper when it achieves certain predetermined measures of market control, and must then follow a number of rules that do not apply to companies that are smaller players in the market. Examples of rules could be not giving yourself priority, sharing certain data with competitors and letting in alternative app stores on a previously closed platform.
You will find the entire interview worth reading here.
