Director of Europe and Transatlantic Partnerships Max von Thun examines how the European Union’s regulatory authorities maybe falling behind in the fight for competition.

Since the launch of its first antitrust investigation into Google in 2010, the European Union has positioned itself as a global leader when it comes to reining in Big Tech. Several EU investigations into the anti-competitive practices of Big Tech monopolies happened years before regulatory authorities in the US or anywhere else in the world took action. As a result of these investigations, tech companies, especially Google, were fined billions of euros. Additionally, major takeovers such as Facebook’s purchase of WhatsApp and Google’s acquisition of Fitbit have also faced scrutiny from EU regulators, all while U.S. legislators and regulators largely sat on their hands as Big Tech accumulated ever more market power. 

The European Union’s leadership in this area was reinforced by last year’s passage of the Digital Markets Act (DMA), which will require dominant tech firms – known as ‘gatekeepers’ – to comply with a whole host of regulatory obligations designed to stamp out their most egregious practices. For example, gatekeepers will no longer be able to self-preference their own services or leverage data collected from their customers, and they will be required to open their platforms to third-party payment services and application stores. As one of the world’s first attempts to legislate in order to protect competition in digital markets, the introduction of the DMA is undoubtedly a significant moment in the global pushback against digital dominance. 

Nonetheless, events taking place elsewhere suggest the EU is at risk of losing its crown. In 2021, the UK became the first country to block a takeover by a Big Tech firm when it ordered Meta to unwind its acquisition of Giphy. And of course, just last month the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a lawsuit seeking to dismantle Google’s dominant position across the adtech supply chain, the nation’s biggest antitrust case in 40 years. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has also sought to block takeovers by Meta and Microsoft as part of a wider reinvigoration of antitrust enforcement under President Biden. 

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