Over the next three months, European Commissioner Margrethe Vestager will draft a new European law on artificial intelligence. Vestager is responsible for the digitalization of the European market. She plans to present her new internet law in March, after which the European Parliament as well as the governments and parliaments of the EU countries must approve it.
Margrethe Vestager has been a driving force behind several important actions the EU has taken against abuse of market power by the technology industry, underpayment of corporate taxes, and violations of user privacy.
Vestager's efforts may also have inspired U.S. authorities, who recently opened several antitrust investigations into tech giants. On Tuesday, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and a coalition of attorneys general announced the launch of an antitrust investigation against Google focusing on its advertising practices.
The EU Commissioner wants to establish new rules in the EU for the collection and sharing of data by large American tech companies such as Facebook, Amazon, and Google. There is considerable concern among IT companies that the EU will also introduce a new tax regulation. This regulation would apply to internet platforms worldwide that generate revenue in European countries. In recent years, Vestager already took Apple to court over tax evasion, resulting in a fine of 13 billion euros.
If she is unable to achieve this globally because some EU countries fear retaliation from the U.S. and are therefore unwilling to cooperate, the European Commission will continue to impose fines on non-European companies if they pay too little tax in the EU, Vestager said.
If these fines do not lead to improved behavior on the European market, she said she is willing, at a later stage if necessary, to 'break up' the American companies. She recently stated this in response to questions from Dutch MEP Paul Tang. Currently, breaking up large tech companies is not being considered. According to Vestager, there is no issue at present that justifies such action, and she also pointed out that this is not an easy solution. The danger exists that after breaking them up, simply two new giants will emerge.
Vestager said she is not satisfied with what the multi-billion euro fines imposed on companies like Google have achieved in recent years. She said this in an interview with Dutch television channel RTL Nieuws. As an example, she cited the advertising market. After the European Commission launched an investigation into Google for removing competition in travel ads, the search giant stopped that behavior.