In the next three months, European Commissioner Margrethe Vestager will draft a new European law for artificial intelligence. Vestager is responsible for the digitization of the European market. She plans to present her new internet law in March, after which the European Parliament and the governments and parliaments of the EU countries have yet to approve her new law.
Margrethe Vestager has been a driving force behind several important steps taken by the EU against the abuse of market power by the technology industry, underpayment of corporate taxes and invasion of user privacy.
Margrethe Verstager's efforts may also have inspired US authorities who recently opened several antitrust investigations against tech giants. On Tuesday, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and a meeting of Attorney General stated that they are opening an antitrust investigation against Google that will focus 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. The great fear among ICT companies is that the EU will also come up with new tax regulations. This should apply to internet platforms anywhere in the world that earn money in European countries. In recent years, Vestager has already taken Apple to court for tax evasion. For this she imposed a fine of 13 billion euros.
If it doesn't get this done globally because some EU countries fear retaliation from the US and therefore refuse to cooperate, the European Commission will continue to fine non-European companies for underpaying EU tax, Vestager said. .
If the fines do not lead to an improvement in their behavior on the European market, it wants to 'break open' American companies at a later stage if necessary. She said this recently in response to questions from Dutch MEP Paul Tang. There is no question of breaking up large tech companies yet. According to Vestager, there is currently no problem that justifies this, and she also states that this is not just a solution. There is a danger that after breaking up, two new giants will simply arise.
Vestager says he is not satisfied with what the billion-dollar fines have brought to companies like Google in recent years. She said that in an interview with the Dutch television channel RTL Nieuws. She mentions the advertising market as an example. After the European Commission opened an investigation against Google about removing competition from travel ads, the search giant stopped that behavior.