We’ve recently covered Meta’s challenges with European regulators. According to a recent story in Reuters, Meta isn’t the only big tech big dog to find itself in European regulators’ crosshairs.
Reuters reports that the European Commission is asking Amazon to provide more information to demonstrate its compliance with the Digital Services Act. This is not the same as the Digital Marketing Act, another thorn in big tech’s side.
Specifically, according to Reuters, Amazon has been asked to “provide detailed information on its compliance with the provisions concerning transparency of the recommender systems.”
According to Search Engine Land, the request delved into Amazon’s ad repository and risk assessment reporting practices as well.
Amazon has been told to cough up the info by July 26. The company said it is reviewing the request.
What’s it all About, Amazon?
So what does this mean? Is this just a routine Eurocratic information request? Or is it a shot across Amazon’s bow to signal that tougher scrutiny is on its way? Amazon has a big bow, so any shot across it needs to be loud. And the splash it makes needs to be big.
Or does it? This seemingly routine info request comes amid a recent spate of actions against mostly U.S.-based big tech firms that signal regulators are eager to enforce the big acts to protect consumer privacy and ensure open competition. The big acts in question are the Digital Marketing Act (DMA) and the Digital Services Act (DSA).
Perhaps this latest info request is merely a fishing expedition by regulators. Perhaps they assume any big tech company is violating the act. They just need to keep looking until they find something.
Everyone favors consumer protection and open competition. Yet one does get the sense that EU regulators are determined to take U.S.-based big tech down a peg. If only to give homegrown eCommerce sites and others a fighting chance.
My colleague Mike Boland and I said a version of this on This Week in Local, the Localogy podcast we co-host.
In March we wrote about how regulators warned Apple, Alphabet (i.e., Google), and Meta that they faced significant fines if they were found to be violating the EU Digital Marketing Act. By significant we mean up to 10% of annual global revenue – in other words, beaucoup d’argent.
