Europe is preparing to rewrite the Internet's rules

According to the EU's new ambassador to Silicon Valley, the Digital Markets Act will force big tech platforms to open their walled gardens in 2023

A law goes into effect that will forever change the internet—and make it much more difficult to be a tech titan. The European Union's Digital Markets Act enters into force on November 1, kicking off a process that will force Amazon, Google, and Meta to make their platforms more open and interoperable by 2023. This could result in significant changes to what people can do with their devices and apps, serving as a reminder that Europe has much more aggressively regulated tech companies than the US.

"We expect significant consequences," says Gerard de Graaf, a veteran EU official who helped pass the DMA earlier this year. He was named director of a new EU office in San Francisco last month, which was established in part to explain the law's implications to big tech companies. According to De Graaf, they will be forced to breach their fortified walls.

"If you have an iPhone, you should be able to download apps not just from the App Store but also from other app stores or from the internet," says de Graaf in a conference room with emerald green accents at the Irish consulate in San Francisco, where the EU's office will be located first. The DMA says that big platforms have to let smaller competitors in. It could also force Meta's WhatsApp to accept messages from competing apps like Signal or Telegram, or it could stop Amazon, Apple, and Google from giving their own apps and services more attention.

Although the DMA goes into effect next week, tech platforms are not required to comply right away. The EU must first determine which companies are large and entrenched enough to be designated as "gatekeepers" subject to the most stringent regulations. De Graaf anticipates that about a dozen companies will be included in that group, which will be announced in the spring. These gatekeepers will then be given six months to comply.

De Graaf has predicted a wave of lawsuits challenging Europe's new big tech rules, but he is in California to help Silicon Valley titans understand that the rules have changed. He claims that the EU has previously imposed large fines on Google, Apple, and others through antitrust investigations, a mechanism that places the burden of proof on bureaucrats. The onus is on businesses to comply with the DMA. "The main message is that the negotiations are over, and we are now in a compliance situation," de Graaf says. "You may not like it, but it is what it is."

The DMA, like the EU's GDPR digital privacy law, is expected to change how tech platforms serve people beyond the EU's 400 million internet users because some compliance details will be more easily implemented globally. 

The Digital Services Act will also be put into place soon. This law requires risk assessments of some algorithms and disclosures about automated decision making. It could also force social apps like TikTok to let outsiders look at their data. The law will also be phased in, with the largest online platforms expected to comply by mid-2024. The EU is also thinking about making rules about artificial intelligence, which could make some uses of the technology illegal.

De Graaf contends that tougher rules for tech behemoths are required not only to protect people and other businesses from unfair practices but also to allow society to reap the full benefits of technology. He has criticized the White House's recent release of a nonbinding AI Bill of Rights, claiming that a lack of firm regulation can undermine public trust in technology. "AI will never be successful," he says, "if our people stop trusting it because they think it treats them unfairly and makes things happen that hurt their lives."

The EU's new office opened in response to recent moves by the EU and the US to collaborate more closely on technology policy. According to De Graaf, both parties are interested in finding solutions to chip shortages as well as ways authoritarian governments can use technology and the internet.

He's also planning a trip to Sacramento to meet with state lawmakers in California who, he claims, have been trailblazers in standing up to Big Tech. Last month, they passed legislation requiring strict default privacy settings for children as well as controls on how companies use data collected about children. In recent years, the US Congress hasn't passed many laws that affect the tech industry. In July, for example, they passed the $52 billion CHIPS and Science Act to help the semiconductor industry.

Marlena Wisniak, executive director of the European Center for Not-for-Profit Law, sees the EU's new presence in the tech industry's backyard as further proof that the EU is serious about shaping global tech policy. She believes de Graaf should use some of his influence to help people who rely on big tech platforms outside of the US and EU, who are rarely represented in tech diplomacy.

Wisniak also hopes that the EU's digital emissaries will avoid the pitfalls that have derailed the plans of previous newcomers to Silicon Valley, a city with far more executives, entrepreneurs, and investors than policy experts. "I hope EU policymakers aren't taken in by the tech hype," she says. "The Tech Bro story is true."