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EU Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton
Photo: POOL / REUTERS
The EU Commission wants to get a tool kit with which it can dismantle the large US tech companies if necessary or forbid them to do business in the EU.
EU Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton said on Monday in Berlin: "We do not want to propose any regulation against anyone, we just want clarity for everyone, regardless of whether they are in the EU, the US or China."
According to Breton, the EU should get the right to force tech companies to sell or dissolve their European branches if their market dominance poses a threat to users or smaller competitors.
Ultimately, a ban on operating in the EU is also planned.
The "Financial Times" reported on the plans on Sunday.
The powers are to be written down in the Digital Services Act, the digital services law.
It is intended to replace the e-commerce directive that was passed 20 years ago.
The commission is expected to present a first draft in December.
He then has to go through the European Parliament and the Council of Ministers.
It may therefore take years before the new law comes into force.
"Too big to care"
The public consultation phase ended in September.
More than 3000 entries have been received, said Breton, two thirds of them from Europe.
One of the findings was that the corporations were already seen as "too big to care" - too big to take public concerns seriously.
This is probably one of the reasons why Breton envisions external supervision of the industry: "Having independent rating agencies who look closely at how a company behaves is very helpful. Personally, I will do everything I can to ensure that all these big platforms behave well, for example paying taxes or deleting illegal content ".
Breton is likely to have meant Google, Amazon, Facebook and Apple (GAFA), among others, even if he deliberately did not mention them by name.
Who should carry out these ratings is still unclear.
"We have a few ideas," said Breton.
According to Breton, however, the liability privilege for companies enshrined in the previous directive should remain unaffected.
The corporations should continue to have to remove illegal content from their platforms only if they become aware of it.
There should be no obligation to search in advance during the upload.
This principle is considered a cornerstone of the World Wide Web, without which social networks such as Facebook and video platforms such as YouTube would not exist in this form and size today.
"We'll leave it as it is," said Breton on Monday.
This is good news for companies as well as for civil society, because both sides had previously expressed their fear that a departure from the principle would lead to a restriction of freedom of expression.
Breton wants to introduce clear guidelines for a careful examination of the platform operator so that they can delete certain illegal content quickly.
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