Welcome to the Brussels Edition, Bloomberg’s daily briefing on what matters most in the heart of the European Union.
The Commission is readying a list of Big Tech platforms that will fall under the scope of new rules in the EU Digital Markets Act, designed to stop abusive practices. Alphabet’s Google Search, Apple’s App Store, Amazon’s marketplace and Meta Platforms’s Facebook are just some of the services likely to land on the list, which the bloc’s executive arm will confirm by tomorrow. Behind closed doors, some Silicon Valley officials have already been laying out potential legal challenges in recent meetings with the EU’s competition chief Margrethe Vestager and members of her team. Pressure is also coming from the European Parliament. Andreas Schwab, the lead MEP on the new rules, yesterday wrote to Vestager, calling on the Commission to include online mapping services under the rules and to broaden the obligations for multi-function tech platforms such as TikTok, which Schwab claimed could be considered a social-media network and an online marketplace.
