DSA / DMA: Brussels imposes its numerical order on Gafa

The European noose continues to tighten around Gafa, a priority target of the Commission, which no longer intends to let them impose their law of the market. After years of laboriously trying to tame them through investigations into their abuse of a dominant position, the dissemination of false information or the sale of counterfeits, the Twenty-Seven have suddenly moved up a gear, creating digital legislation with two founding texts: the Digital Markets Act (DMA), published on March 24, aimed at regulating the competitive practices of Internet giants, and the Digital Services Act (DSA), on April 23, which obliges the major platforms to eradicate illegal and dangerous content and incitement to hatred online.

The framework set, the European Commission remains on the offensive. On May 2, she returned to the attack against Apple, again for abusive practice, this time on its Apple Pay payment system. And on May 5, she advanced on an old demand from telecom operators on the Old Continent to make Google, Youtube, Facebook and Amazon pay for the overuse of their networks. Two test points for Brussels.

UNLOCKING PAYMENT SYSTEMS

The Commission has a long habit of the monopolistic practices of the giant Apple, already condemned for always favoring its proprietary system. This time, it was the European banks who complained about the Apple brand’s mobile payment method. After two years of investigation, Brussels ruled that Apple « abused its dominant position in the markets for mobile wallets on its devices running the iOS operating system ».

In fact, iPhone owners who want to pay contactless with their device can only use the Apple Pay service, because the American firm has locked access to its NFC chip, the standard technology that allows this type of payment. operation. As a result, unlike Android phone users, it is impossible for them to pay directly via their online banking app, such as Revolut or Société Générale. They are forced to go through Apple’s proprietary system. The company justifies its lockdown by invoking the security argument. In practice, it collects through this the bank commissions deducted from each payment – between 0.2 and 0.3% of the sum. A windfall of which the competing financial players all want their share.

« For the purposes of the integration of European payments markets, it is essential that consumers benefit from a competitive and innovative payments landscape », insisted the Vice-President of the Commission, Margrethe Vestager.

Apple’s practice has notably hindered the downloading of Paylib, the payment solution launched by several large French banks, on the iPhone App Store. « We are coming to the end of this fight with the Germans, welcomes Michel Gan-zin, deputy general manager of Crédit Agricole. Apple will have to open access to its NFC antenna to other mobile payment systems ». Or expose yourself to a fine from the European Union which can theoretically go up to 10% of your turnover. The Digital Market Acts, by targeting monopolistic behavior, should put additional pressure on Apple to open up mobile payments.

TOLL ON TELECOM NETWORKS

After the banks, Margrethe Verstager pleased the telephone operators by declaring that « the fair contribution to the telecom networks » is a subject watched « with great attention ». It thus upholds the complaint of Orange, Deutsche Telekom, Telefonica, Vodafone, who complain of having to invest billions to increase the speed in the networks – 88 billion between 2011 and 2020, in France alone – just to do better pass the floods of content from American search engines, social networks and star video services. Between them, Microsoft, Meta (Facebook), Netflix, Alphabet (Google), Amazon and Apple monopolize 56% of European bandwidth, calculated Etno, the European telecoms lobby. But these giants that saturate the networks also capture most of the value. “This regulation must be considered within the very broad framework of the Digital Decade for Europe”, the major digital transformation project adopted in March 2020, underlines a spokesperson for the Commission.

If the principle of passing the Gafa to the cash register is acquired, the mechanism remains to be defined. “The legal difficulty will be to impose this contribution on some and not on others”, underlines Thomas Coudry, analyst responsible for tech at Bryan Garnier. Kings of lobbying, the digital giants will probably seek compensation from Brussels. A balance has to be defined. « Because it would be unacceptable to take back with one hand what you give with the other, » warns Thomas Coudry. The operators have already quantified the « fair contribution »: they hope for a windfall of 20 billion euros per year to finance investments in their networks. The negotiations promise to be intense, but the telecoms industry is counting on a text at the end of 2022.

RAMP-UP

May 2018 Entry into force of the GDPR, a world first in data protection.

March 2019 Adoption of the copyright directive, which modernizes copyright.

March 2022 Adoption of the Digital Market Act, which tackles anti-competitive practices.

April 2022 Adoption of the Digital Services Act, which regulates content.