The EU wants to arm itself with new powers to penalize big technology companies, the Financial Times (FT) reported yesterday.
The proposed plan includes forcing tech giants to break up or sell some of their European operations if their market dominance is deemed to threaten the interests of customers and smaller rivals, the newspaper said.
The commission is set to propose new rules called the Digital Services Act by the end of the year, which would increase social media’s responsibilities and liability for content on their platforms.
EU Commissioner for International Market and Services Thierry Breton, in an interview with the FT, said that the proposed remedies, which would only be used in extreme circumstances, also include the ability to exclude tech firms from the single market.
Breton was quoted as saying that activities, such as companies preventing users from switching platforms or forcing customers to use only one service, could lead to tougher sanctions.
Brussels is also considering a rating system that would allow the public and shareholders to assess companies’ behavior in areas such as tax compliance and the speed with which they take down illegal content, the FT said.
EU finance ministers were under pressure from France to impose a digital tax in Europe, with international talks involving the US bogged down.
Nearly 140 countries are trying to negotiate new rules for taxing tech giants such as Google or Facebook Inc, which under current rules can shift revenue to countries with lower tax rates.
French Minister of Finance Bruno Le Maire doubts that talks at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) will succeed and wants the EU to draw up its own.
“The only winners of the economic crisis are the digital giants,” he said at a meeting of EU finance ministers in Berlin on Sept. 11.
If an OECD agreement is impossible by December, “we should have by the beginning of next year, 2021, a European solution for digital taxation,” Le Maire added.
Additional reporting by AFP
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