• The European Union and the United States have reached an agreement in principle on reviving transatlantic data transfers
• Under the DMA there will be centralised enforcement at EU level
• If gatekeeper firms break the rules, they will be subjected with fines and a wide range of sanctions in case of systematic non-compliance. 

The European Union and the United States have reached an agreement in principle on reviving transatlantic data transfers. The agreement was announced by Ursula von der Leyen at a joint press conference with US Vice President Joe Biden. After a historic court judgement in July 2020, which struck down the EU-US Privacy Shield, the announcement signals an end to the many months of legal ambiguity that have been impacting Big Tech businesses in Europe.

Ursula von der Leyen emphasised the importance of continuously adapting EU and US democracy to the needs of a changing world, particularly in the context of digitisation. Personal data protection and privacy have become increasingly important in today’s digital world. The United States and the European Union have reached an agreement in principle on a new framework for transatlantic data transfers.

She emphasised the need of reaching an agreement on transatlantic data flows since it will allow for predictable and trustworthy data transfers between the EU and the US. This will protect privacy whilst respecting the principle of civil liberties.

We have agreed in principle on a new Trans-Atlantic Data Privacy Framework with the U.S. 🇪🇺🇺🇸

It will provide a durable basis for data flows, which are critical to protecting citizens' rights and enabling commerce in all sectors of the economy.

Read our joint statement ↓

— European Commission (@EU_Commission) March 25, 2022

Commissioner Reynders and Secretary Raimondo were commended by Ursula von der Leyen for their tireless work to find a balanced and effective solution to the EU-US data protection challenges. An agreement on data concerns will improve the EU-US collaboration and aid in balancing security while also protecting the right to privacy and data protection.

“I really want to thank Commissioner Reynders and Secretary Raimondo for their tireless efforts over the past months to find a balanced and effective solution”

Previously, the legal uncertainty surrounding EU-US data transfers prompted European data protection officials to issue orders against big internet companies’ products containing personal data flows. European Anti-Trust Regulators is examining three ongoing cases against Google and fourth is in the process, two ongoing cases against Amazon, three cases against Apple and Facebook is also under regulatory scrutiny.

Digital Market Act will play an important role in shaping the future of Internet Players in Europe. Executive Vice-President Vestager said that the behaviour of Big Tech is a case of systemic misbehaviour and EU needs regulations to fix it.

• Digital Markets Act will set the rules for gatekeepers’ companies
• Digital Markets Act is similar to what has been done a long time ago in sectors such as banking, telecoms, energy, transport where regulation and competition rules work hand in hand.
• Many jurisdictions around the world have come to realise that in Digital Market some firms play a special role that requires greater regulatory oversight.
• Under the DMA, there will be centralised enforcement at EU level.
•  A designation process will conduct to identify the Digital Firms acting as a “gatekeepers” and series of do’s and don’ts will be imposed on them. 
• The DMA will have enforcement provisions to keep a check on the behaviour of gatekeeper firms.
•  If gatekeeper firms break the rules, they will be subjected with fines and a wide range of sanctions in case of systematic non-compliance. 

The Digital Markets Act (DMA) would apply to large enterprises providing key platform services  with a market value of at least €75 billion and an annual turnover of at least €7.5 billion that. Companies must also have at least 45 million monthly end users in the EU and more than 10,000 annual business to come under the DMA’s scope.

One of the important features of the deal is interoperability of messaging services across platforms. This is set to impact Meta (Fecebook) as it controls two the of the world’s largest messaging platform Facebook messenger and whattsup.

Regulations will give unprecedented power to Brussles to regulate big tech and will decisively impact the scale and dominance of big tech in future.   This will also help in emergence and gaining of scale  of some European company in the coming future.

Bureau Galactik Views