EU rules out supervisory fee for big tech under Digital Markets Act

The European Commission will not impose a supervisory fee on major tech firms such as Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, ByteDance, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, and Booking.com to cover the cost of enforcing the Digital Markets Act (DMA), the EU's tech chief confirmed on Wednesday, Reuters reported.

Henna Virkkunen, Executive Vice-President of the European Commission overseeing digital policy, said in the report that there are currently no proposals to levy compliance costs on these companies, despite mounting demands from Germany and members of the European Parliament to do so.

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The DMA, a sweeping regulatory framework enforced since 2023, seeks to curb the dominance of so-called "gatekeepers" - a designation applied to tech giants providing core platform services such as online marketplaces, app stores, and social networks.

The law lays down strict rules to prevent anti-competitive behaviour and promote user choice. According to the report, proponents of a supervisory fee argue that it would help fund the significant resources needed to oversee these firms.

Some have called for a model similar to the Digital Services Act (DSA), which includes a fee amounting to 0.05% of a company's annual global net income for large platforms tasked with policing online content.

However, for now, the European Commission appears to be holding off on adding any financial burdens to tech giants under the DMA framework - a move likely to be welcomed by the companies but criticized by advocates of stronger enforcement mechanisms, the report added.

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