I beat the digital titans

The Vice-President of the Commission Margrethe Vestager and the Commissioner for the Internal Market, Thierry Breton.OLIVIER MATTHYS / AFP

The 21st century will be defined not only by the traditional great power pulses - between powers or between social classes - but also, and to an increasingly relevant measure, by a very specific one of our time: the pulse between political power and immense digital might of the tech business giants.

The battle is being fought on different fronts: guaranteeing free competition, the adequate payment of taxes, the transparent management of personal data or the monitoring of the content that travels on these extraordinary digital platforms.

The European Commission yesterday presented two highly anticipated draft legislation on this matter: the Digital Services Law (DSA) and the Digital Markets Law (DMA).

The regulations seek to prevent abuse of a dominant position and ensure that platforms responsibly monitor their content.

To do this, they aim to provide regulatory authorities with much more effective tools to control these titans.

They are proposed in the right direction.

The European Commission is correct in admitting that its competition regulation has been largely out of date, being unable to address the problems posed by the practices of large technology companies.

The rules were created with the intention of helping to modify the behavior of the corporate giants.

They foresee very large penalties for companies that violate the competition rules, with the prospect of fragmentation of their businesses for repeat offenders.

The proposals are a first step that will have to be considered by Parliament and the European Council.

No less important in the analysis of the power of these companies is the strict compliance with their tax obligations in the countries in which they operate.

The inability to ensure that the prosperous activity of these firms in European countries is translated into equally significant contributions to public finances remains manifest.

This is more than an anomaly, which until now has not gone beyond the recognition of the problem, its adverse consequences on the tax collection capacity of the States and on the minimum establishment of principles of fiscal homogeneity in the community territory itself.

Restore fair and competitive play;

ensure that people's rights and privacy are respected;

stop the spread of dangerous content;

Getting all companies to pay taxes, also under the same conditions as others, are necessary actions to strengthen the economic system itself.

The renewed zeal for free competition defined by the Commission, far from being at odds with innovation, fosters innovation, by facilitating the plurality of bidders and the possibility of new companies emerging with new ideas.

The “adaptation to the digital age” of Europe advocated by President Von der Leyen, in addition to incorporating large allocations of resources to the acceleration of convergence with the big ones, can point the direction of adequate global regulation of this sector.

The pulse, again, is cast, but now it seems that the arguments find political will and legislative answers.