Apple, Alphabet’s Google, Facebook, Amazon, and other U.S. tech giants could be banned from favoring their apps and services under draft EU rules aimed at reining in their power. One clause would ban app store proprietors from blocking rivals offering their products to customers outside of the gatekeeper’s platform or services, a move which would affect Apple’s and Google’s app store and in-app payment rules.
The draft rules, known as the Digital Services Act, aim to set the ground rules for data-sharing and how digital marketplaces operate. They are expected to come into force by the end of the year.
Gatekeepers, such as companies with bottleneck power or strategic market status, will not be allowed to use data collected on their platforms to target users unless this data is shared with rivals, according to the document seen by Reuters.
“Gatekeepers shall not pre-install exclusively their own applications nor require from any third party operating system developers or hardware manufacturers to pre-install exclusively gatekeepers’ own application,” the paper said.
The rules would also subject gatekeepers to annual audits of their advertising metrics and reporting practices.
MacDailyNews Take: We’ll see how the EU Digital Services Act affects Apple (which does not have a dominant position in any market and face strong competition in every category) and many other companies, businesses, and markets – negatively and positively – in due time.