Spotify, Deezer and a host of other European tech companies are pushing EU governments to toughen up draft laws designed to stamp out alleged unfair business practices of US internet giants such as Google, Apple and Amazon.
In a joint letter to EU governments on Monday, creative industry leaders, including publishers and game developers, called on lawmakers to “seize the opportunity” to rewrite draft legislation designed to rebalance the relationship between apps and vendors that are increasingly reliant on platforms for their services.
The companies say planned new regulations, drawn up earlier this year by the European Commission, do not go far enough to address the “serious harm” and “abuse of privilege” carried out by platforms when they impose unfair conditions on small businesses.
The letter, which was cosigned by Daniel Elk, chief executive of Spotify, and Hans-Holger Albrecht, chief executive of Deezer — accused US giants such as Google of becoming “gatekeepers to the digital economy” by using their dominant position to impose unfair terms on game developers and app makers.
Examples include Apple requiring downloads from its app store to use Apple’s own payment methods rather than other tools, such as PayPal.
EU competition and business ministers will meet in Brussels on Thursday. The EU’s 28 member states will have to agree on a version of the draft legislation, which will then be considered by the European Parliament and the European Commission before it can come into force.
Known as the “platform to business” regulation, the rules are one of the commission’s final attempts to address the operations of “intermediation services” such as Google, Amazon and Airbnb before EU-wide elections next May.
The commission’s proposal would require platforms to give companies more information about how their ranking algorithms work and offer businesses, app makers and traders with a formal complaint process if they were demoted or de-listed from search results or app stores without sufficient explanation.
But the joint letter’s signatories argue the measures do not go far enough to address unfair business practices. Spotify has complained that Apple’s app store gives preferential treatment to its own music service and takes a 30 per cent cut of its premium subscription fees when downloads come from the app store.
“Transparency alone will not rebalance the relationship between platforms and the businesses that depend on them,” said the letter, whose signatories also include the European Publishers Council, the head of the European Broadcasting Union, and the European Game Developers Federation.
“The immediate impact of unfair practices on business users can be severe, including a material loss of competitiveness, commercial viability and customers, and a reduced capacity to innovate and grow new markets,” the letter said.
Despite the calls from business, diplomats say member states are unlikely to back tougher platform legislation ahead of next May’s European Parliament elections.
One diplomat said that even governments that support cracking down on platforms, such as France, were likely to back a compromise instead of pushing for more stringent requirements for platforms.
The fight over the platform regulation comes weeks after MEPs agreed to start negotiations with EU governments on contentious new copyright reforms that could require the likes of YouTube to impose filters on user-uploaded content to improve protection for musicians from illegal use of their content.
EU governments are also considering plans to impose a temporary “digital sales tax” on big tech companies but remain fiercely divided over the issue.
