Digital Services Act: Commission designates first set of Very Large Online Platforms and Search Engines

Today, the European Commission has started two sets of specification proceedings to assist Google in complying with its obligations under the Digital Markets Act (‘DMA'). The specification proceedings formalise the Commission's regulatory dialogue with Google on certain areas of its compliance with two DMA obligations. The first set of proceedings concerns Google's obligation under Article 6(7) of the DMA to provide third-party developers with free and effective interoperability with hardware and software features controlled by Google's Android operating system. Today's proceedings focus on features used by Google's own Artificial Intelligence (‘AI') services, such as Gemini. The Commission intends to specify how Google should grant third-party AI service providers equally effective access to the same features as those available to Google's own services. The aim is to ensure that third-party providers have an equal opportunity to innovate and compete in the rapidly evolving AI landscape on smart mobile devices. The second set of proceedings concerns Google's obligation under Article 6(11) of the DMA to grant third-party providers of online search engines access to anonymised ranking, query, click and view data held by Google Search on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory (‘FRAND') terms. These proceedings focus on the scope of data, the anonymisation method, the conditions of access, and the eligibility of AI chatbot providers to access the data. Effective compliance and access to a useful dataset will allow third-party providers of online search engines to optimise their services and offer users genuine alternatives to Google Search. Next steps The Commission will conclude the proceedings within six months of their opening. Within the upcoming three months the Commission will communicate its preliminary findings to Google setting out the draft measures it intends to impose on Google to effectively comply with the DMA. Non-confidential summaries of preliminary findings and the envisaged measures will be published to enable third parties to provide comments. These proceedings, which by their nature do not take a position on compliance with the DMA, are without prejudice to the powers of the Commission to adopt a decision finding non-compliance with any of the obligations laid down in the DMA by a gatekeeper, including the possibility to impose fines or periodic penalty payments. Background The DMA aims to ensure contestable and fair markets in the digital sector. It regulates gatekeepers, which are large digital platforms that provide an important gateway between business users and consumers, whose position can grant them the power to create a bottleneck in the digital economy. On 6 September 2023, the European Commission designated Google Inc.'s Google Search, Google Play, Google Maps, YouTube, Google Android operating system, Google Chrome, Google Shopping and its online advertising services as core platform services. Google has had to fully comply with all applicable DMA obligations in respect of the designated services since 7 March 2024. The Commission has published an annual report on the implementation of the DMA and the progress made towards achieving its objectives.This article is brought to you in association with the European Commission. Today, the Commission adopted the first designation decisions under the Digital Services Act (DSA), designating 17 Very Large Online Platforms (VLOPs) and 2 Very Large Online Search Engines (VLOSEs) that reach at least 45 million monthly active users. These are: Very Large Online Platforms: […]

On Google antitrust case: “Let’s face it, some companies want to hurt Google and it goes as simple as that”

After 5 long lingering years a bit of light will be cast on Google’s antitrust case in Europe. Former Commissioner Joaquin Almunia for Competition failed to resolve the matter successfully during his term, going back and forth numerous times. Like a modern Pontius Pilate who “washed his hands”, the Spanish politician, who launched the Google investigation back […]

EU to Google: How to dismantle European search engines in 13 steps

It seems that the search engine thriller that we are watching with horror in the Old Continent goes on. Last week the Sting reported on how parliamentarians were planning to “break up with reality in the Google antitrust case”. This week we are counting the votes and the list of “guidelines” to Google and all […]

Search Engine neutrality in Europe in danger: Are 160.000 Google filtering requests good enough?

The long awaited last public discussion about “the right to be forgotten” took place in Brussels yesterday. This was the last of the seven miracles or otherwise open forums in different European cities that the Californian giant has been organising since last May. The reason for these costly events was to engage civic society in […]

EU Council: Private web data to be protected by…abusers

Protection of citizens and businesses web data is still a pending issue in the European Union and internet companies may, probably legally, sell to marketers names, telephone numbers, mail addresses and consumer profiles including personal details. The existing privacy laws are twenty years old and far from effectively protecting our data from being sold and […]
Go back up

The European Sting – Critical News & Insights on European Politics, Economy, Foreign Affairs, Business & Technology – europeansting.com