New editions for Google, Microsoft and Co.

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Germany headquarters of Microsoft (archive picture): stricter rules

Photo: Sven Hoppe / picture alliance / dpa

The digital laws with which the EU wants to reorganize competition in the internet economy have cleared another hurdle.

The groups in the EU Parliament have agreed that platform companies with a market capital of over 80 billion euros will be classified as so-called gatekeepers, for which special conditions apply.

This would mean that the US multinationals Google, Apple, Facebook and Microsoft as well as the Dutch hotel broker Booking.com would fall under the law.

The SPD MP Evelyne Gebhardt expects half a dozen other people affected, such as the US travel company Airbnb or Alibaba.

The number of companies was deliberately kept small in order to »ensure effective control of the companies«, says the responsible EU parliamentarian Andreas Schwab.

According to Vestager's Digital Markets Act, for example, gatekeepers should be prohibited from preferring their own offers on their pages or from only listing their own apps in their shops.

After the agreement in the EU Parliament, it is likely that the rules can be finally adopted during the French presidency next spring.

msa