The European Commission’s Marguerite Vestager, worthy of the digital age, will speak at the signing ceremony on chips law at the EU headquarters in Brussels on February 8, 2022. (Pool via Virginia Mayo / Reuters)
Brussels — A strict new rule for US high-tech giants agreed late Thursday is expected to come into force in October, said Marguerite Vestager, head of EU antitrust law, Friday.
The rule proposed by Vestager a year ago, called the Digital Markets Act, provides a list of recommendations and prohibitions for Amazon, Apple, Meta, the Alphabet unit Google, and Microsoft.
Fines for violations range from 10% of a company’s annual global sales to 20% for repeat offenders who may face a takeover ban.
“And in the foreseeable process, these laws, well, they will be voted and published in the official journal, so they will come into effect sometime in October,” Vestager said at a press conference.
Companies designated as online gatekeepers who control access to the platform and the data generated there have six months to comply with the new rules.
Hu Yun Qi
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