Ministers of the two Governments signed a position paper advocating an ex-ante framework.
A call for ‘access and behavioural measures’: On 15 October 2020, the Minister of Digital for France and the State Secretary of Digital Affairs for the Netherlands published a joint position paper, calling for the regulation of ‘too powerful large digital platforms’ with ‘access and behavioural measures’. An EU authority would have the power to impose these remedies on a case-by-case basis.
What the paper proposes: The paper identifies large digital platforms as ‘gatekeepers’ or ‘structuring platforms’, and calls for pre-emptive action before the harm caused by a gatekeeper’s behaviour becomes irreversible. Intervention could include a principle-based set of obligations, as well as tailor-made remedies for each gatekeeper. Possible remedies are, among others, data sharing obligations and extending data portability to business users of a platform.
Why it matters: The European Commission is expected to propose a Digital Services Act by the end of 2020, which will set out a regulatory framework for online platforms. Historically, France and the Netherlands have had diverging views on how to regulate Big Tech, with France pushing for a more prescriptive approach. The joint position paper is a sign that EU member states could come together more easily than they did in the past on other Big Tech issues, such as the Digital Services Tax in 2018, on which EU countries did not find an agreement.
