Germany is calling on tech giants Alphabet (GOOGL.O), Amazon (AMZN.O), Apple (AAPL.O), ByteDance, Meta Platforms (META.O), and Microsoft (MSFT.O) to shoulder the financial burden of compliance costs associated with new European Union regulations, according to a senior official from the German economy ministry on Thursday.
Sven Giegold, the state secretary overseeing competition policy at Germany’s economy ministry, expressed the necessity for this contribution to aid EU antitrust regulators in effectively implementing the Digital Markets Act (DMA), which the aforementioned six companies must adhere to by March 7.
The DMA introduces a set of obligations for these companies, including facilitating interoperability with rival services, enabling business users to promote and conduct transactions outside their platforms, and prohibiting the unfair prioritization of their own services over competitors’ or hindering users from uninstalling pre-installed software or apps.
Giegold, speaking at a conference organised by the German antitrust agency, stressed the need for additional resources for enforcement, proposing a fee financing mechanism akin to that established under the Digital Services Act (DSA).
The DSA mandates that 20 major online platforms, including Meta, Google, Apple, and TikTok, pay a supervisory fee equivalent to 0.05% of their annual global net income for content policing on their platforms.
However, the DMA currently lacks such a provision.
Furthermore, Giegold advocated for EU antitrust authorities to concentrate efforts on strategic sectors with international significance to bolster European competitiveness globally.
He revealed plans to formally present a German proposal at the EU level, aimed at reforming key areas such as raw materials, energy, transportation, semiconductors, and cloud computing, referencing the efforts led by former Italian prime ministers Mario Draghi and Enrico Letta, who were appointed by the Commission to enhance the EU’s economic competitiveness.