Lawmakers at the European Parliament have approved the new regulations that will ensure eBay, Google, and Amazon will need to convey to their vendors how they rank products on their platforms. Under the new law, Apple and Facebook will have to mention their terms and conditions clearly. The new law came into force on 17th April.
Last year in April, EC proposed a platform-to-business law to rein in online giants and controlling unfair practices, especially against smaller rivals. The new rules will cover 7000 online companies including e-commerce online market place, social media, Apple app store, Google play store, and Microsoft store.
“As the first-ever regulation in the world that addresses the challenges of business relations within the online platform economy, it is an important milestone of the Digital Single Market and lays the ground for future developments,” Andrus Ansip, the Commission’s digital chief, said. The rules will require companies to set up an internal system to handle complaints and allow businesses to group together to sue platforms.
“This new regulation will contribute positively to achieving the digital single market while reinforcing trust and predictability online,” a statement from tech-lobby group EDiMA read.
