Within days of the European Union saying it was probing Alphabet‘s advertising and data collection processes, Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai is set to converse with European Commission Digital Affairs and Antitrust Chief Margrethe Vestager, Bloomberg reported.
Vestager and Pichai will “will discuss issues within the digital and competition portfolios,” a representative of the EU said, per Bloomberg. The bloc, for its part, has been probing Google’s data procedures as of 2019. It is also looking into the way that Amazon harnesses the sales information of competitors.
The EU also looked into Google’s possible utilization of information from buying Fitbit prior to giving the takeover the green light with conditions back in December. In the same month, Vestager unveiled plans that would reduce the capabilities of web companies if they are considered to be a “gatekeeper” to online services.
Vestager and Pichai are set to converse on Monday (Jan. 25), Bloomberg reported, citing the bloc’s calendar on Friday (Jan. 22).
The news comes as new draft regulations connected to the Digital Markets Act and the Digital Services Act would widen EU regulators’ power to reign in Big Tech.
Big Tech could become smaller tech via breakups and restrictions on their capabilities throughout the continent.
The DMA would make Big Tech “gatekeepers” let third-party software work with their platforms and offerings. Among other things, the DSA would require that firms disclose more completely how they harness digital advertising and algorithms to suggest content to users.
“The two proposals serve one purpose: to make sure that we, as users, as customers, as businesses, have access to a wide choice of safe products and services online, just as well as we do in the physical world. And that all businesses operating in Europe, that can be big ones, that can be small ones, that they can freely and fairly compete online, just as they do offline,” Vestager said in a statement posted to the EU’s website in December.
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