Dara Khosrowshahi suggested that ‘regulatory sandboxes’ should be established for emerging tech companies.
Background: Tech companies have faced increasing regulatory scrutiny in recent years. Europe led the way with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) which soon became a benchmark for other countries. More recently, regulators have turned their attention to a broader spectrum of issues, such as harmful content and hate speech, disinformation, and addiction. National and local legislators are also passing rules which could stifle the development of the ‘gig economy’ by requiring tech companies to treat their workers as employees.
Uber weighs in: This week, Uber’s CEO warned about the risks of tough regulation for innovation, saying “some of the regulation is tougher for startups” and could prevent tech companies from even existing. Khosrowshahi singled out Europe as a particularly difficult place to operate, and suggested that regulatory ‘sandboxes’ could be created so that small companies are exempted from rules that apply to larger businesses.
The tide is turning in the US too: While European legislators have taken the first initiatives to regulate tech companies, US regulators and lawmakers have recently shown they could soon follow with a more hands-on approach. The State of California passed a strict privacy act, which will come into force in 2020. Attorney Generals of nearly all States are also, for the first time, looking at Google and Facebook to determine whether they engage in anti-competitive practices. And not forgetting the FTC recently issued a staggering $5bn fine to Facebook for the breach of privacy settlements agreed in 2011.
