The agreement came after more than 16 hours of negotiations.
The Digital Services Act (DSA) is the second prong of EU antitrust chief
Margrethe Vestager's strategy to rein in Alphabet unit Google, Meta, and other
US tech giants.
Last month, she won backing from the 27-country bloc and
lawmakers for landmark rules called the Digital Markets Act (DMA) that could
force Google, Amazon, Apple, Meta, and Microsoft to change their core business
practices in Europe.
"We have a deal on the DSA: The Digital Services Act
will make sure that what is illegal offline is also seen and dealt with as
illegal online - not as a slogan, as reality," Vestager said in a tweet.
EU lawmaker Dita Charanzova, who had called for such rules
eight years ago, welcomed the agreement.
"Google, Meta, and other large online platforms will
have to act to better protect their users. Europe has made clear that they
cannot act as independent digital islands," she said in a statement.
In a statement, Google said: "As the law is finalised
and implemented, the details will matter. We look forward to working with
policymakers to get the remaining technical details right to ensure the law
works for everyone."
Under the DSA, the companies face fines up to 6 percent of
their global turnover for violating the rules while repeated breaches could see
them banned from doing business in the EU.
The new rules ban targeted advertising aimed at children or
based on sensitive data such as religion, gender, race and political opinions.
Dark patterns, which are tactics that mislead people into giving personal data
to companies online, will also be prohibited.
Very large online platforms and online search engines will
be required to take specific measures during a crisis. The move was triggered
by Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the related disinformation.
The companies could be forced to hand over data related to
their algorithms to regulators and researchers.
The companies also face a yearly fee up to 0.05 percent of
worldwide annual revenue to cover the costs of monitoring their compliance.
EU lawmaker Martin Schirdewan criticised the exemption
granted to medium-sized companies.
"Under pressure from the conservatives, an exception
rule for medium-sized companies was integrated, this is a mistake. Due to the
large number of companies that fall under this definition in the digital
sector, the exception is like a loophole," he said.
The DSA will be enforced in 2024. © Reuters
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