20 Amendments of Alfred SANT related to 2020/0374(COD)
Amendment 135 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 13
Recital 13
(13) In particular, online intermediation services, online search engines, operating systems, online social networking, video sharing platform services, number- independent interpersonal communication services, cloud computing services and online advertisingocial networking, number-independent interpersonal communication services, online search engines, operating systems, web browsers, online advertising services, cloud computing services, mobile payment services, digital voice assistants, platforms using integrated voice assistant technologies, video sharing platform services and online on-demand audiovisual media services and audio media services all have the capacity to affect a large number of end users and businesses alike, which entails a risk of unfair business practices. They therefore should be included in the definition of core platform services and fall into the scope of this Regulation. Online intermediation services may also be active in the field of financial services, and they may intermediate or be used to provide such services as listed non-exhaustively in Annex II to Directive (EU) 2015/1535 of the European Parliament and of the Council32 . In certain circumstances, the notion of end users should encompass users that are traditionally considered business users, but in a given situation do not use the core platform services to provide goods or services to other end users, such as for example businesses relying on cloud computing services for their own purposes. _________________ 32Directive (EU) 2015/1535 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 9 September 2015 laying down a procedure for the provision of information in the field of technical regulations and of rules on Information Society services, OJ L 241, 17.9.2015, p. 1.
Amendment 200 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 42
Recital 42
(42) The advertising revenues for many online advertising services, such as traditional publishers, have significantly declined, whereas the advertising revenues for gatekeepers have steadily increased1a. The conditions under which gatekeepers provide online advertising services to business users including both advertisers and publishers are very often non- transparent and opaque. This opacity is plartgely linked to the practices of a few platforms, but is also due to the sheer complexity of modern day programmatic advertising. The online advertising sector is considered to have become more non- transparent after the introduction of new privacy legislation, and is expected to become even more opaque with the announced removal of third-party cookies. This often leads to a lack of trustworthy information and knowledge for advertisers and publishers about the conditions of the advertising services they purchased and undermines their ability to switch to alternative providers of online advertising services or build their own service. Furthermore, the costs of online advertising are likely to besignificantly higher than they would be in a fairer, more transparent and contestable platform environment. These higher costs are likely to be reflected in the prices that end users pay for many daily products and services relying on the use of online advertising. Transparency obligations should therefore require gatekeepers to provide advertisers and publishers to whom they supply online advertising services, when requested and to the extent possible,In addition, a few dominant platforms have gathered significant sets of data and data points, which erodes the exclusive trademarks of publishers and advertisers and extracts their client's data, creating unfair competition. Transparency obligations should therefore require gatekeepers to provide advertisers and publishers to whom they supply online advertising services continuous, real-time and free of charge access to the performance measuring tools of the gatekeeper and provide for entire disclosure and transparency of the parameters and data used for with information that allows both sides to understand the price paid for each of the different advertising services provided as part of the relevant advertising value chain. A gatekeeper should further provide, free of charge, reliable, non-aggregated, granular and complete data necessary for advertisers and publishers to carry out their own independent high-quality and real-time evaluation of intermediation services, including verification of the ad inventory. Moreover, a prohibition on combining data sets should prevent tracking of end users and thereby level the playing field for providers of online advertising services, strengthening funding of public media and restoring privacy of end users. _________________ 1ahttps://trackingfreeads.eu/the-costs-of- tracking-ads/
Amendment 211 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 47
Recital 47
(47) The rules that the gatekeepers set for the distribution of software applications may in certain circumstances restrict the ability of end users to install and effectively use third party software applications or software application stores on operating systems or hardware of the relevant gatekeeper and restrict the ability of end users to access these software applications or software application stores outside the core platform services of that gatekeeper. Such restrictions may limit the ability of developers of software applications to use alternative distribution channels and the ability of end users to choose between different software applications from different distribution channels and should be prohibited as unfair and liable to weaken the contestability of core platform services. The end user should be required to decide which software application or software application store should become the default. In order to ensure that third party software applications or software application stores do not endanger the integrity of the hardware or operating system provided by the gatekeeper the gatekeeper concerned may implement proportionate technical or contractual measures to achieve that goal if the gatekeeper demonstrates that such measures are necessary and justified and that there are no less restrictive means to safeguard the integrity of the hardware or operating system.
Amendment 222 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 51 a (new)
Recital 51 a (new)
(51 a) Interoperability can have a direct positive impact on contestability, fairness on the market and consumer welfare. Thus, interoperability which requires platforms to use open protocols, such as Application Programming Interface, lowers significantly the barriers to entry for potential competitors on the market, as it would grant competitors access to existing networks and allow them to participate therein. This would as well allow competing platforms to offer their internal systems to users whose data lives elsewhere thereby enabling them to chose an equivalent consumer friendly alternative and at the same time enhance contestability.
Amendment 274 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 71 a (new)
Recital 71 a (new)
(71 a) The Commission should be empowered to request the assistance of Member State authorities. The relevant national authorities may include competition authorities, consumer protection authorities and data protection authorities and other relevant national regulators.
Amendment 370 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 3 – paragraph 2 – point b – introductory part
Article 3 – paragraph 2 – point b – introductory part
(b) the requirement in paragraph 1 point (b) where it provides aone or more core platform service that hass combining more than 4523 million monthly active end users established or located in the Union and more than 107 000 yearly active business users per year established in the Union during the last financial year;
Amendment 377 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 3 – paragraph 3 – introductory part
Article 3 – paragraph 3 – introductory part
3. Where a provider of core platform services meets all the thresholds in paragraph 2, it shall notify the Commission thereof within three months after those thresholds are satisfied and provide it with the relevant information identified in paragraph 2.. That notification shall include the relevant information identified in paragraph 2 for each of the core platform services of the provider that meets the thresholds in paragraph 2 point (b). The notification shall be updated whenevbe considered as a gatekeeper and shall comply with all its obligations under other core platform services individually meet the thresholds in paragraph 2 point (b)urrent Regulation.
Amendment 397 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 3 – paragraph 6 – subparagraph 1 – point a
Article 3 – paragraph 6 – subparagraph 1 – point a
(a) the size, including turnover and market capitalisation, operations and position of the provider of core platform services, actual or potential market share and market dominance in the relevant markets;
Amendment 420 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 3 – paragraph 8
Article 3 – paragraph 8
8. The gatekeeper shall comply with the obligations laid down in Articles 5 and 6 within sixas soon as possible, and in any case no later than two months after a core platform service has been included in the list pursuant to paragraph 7 of this Article. If a gatekeeper fails to comply with the obligations within these 2 months, article 25 and 26 are triggered.
Amendment 428 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 4 – paragraph 3
Article 4 – paragraph 3
3. The Commission shall publish and update the list of gatekeepers and the list of the core platform services for which they need to comply with the obligations laid down in Articles 5 and 6 on an on-going basis. The Commission shall publish an annual report setting out the findings of its monitoring activities and present it to the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union.
Amendment 444 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 5 – paragraph 1 – point b
Article 5 – paragraph 1 – point b
(b) allow business users to offer the same products or services to end users through third party online intermediation services or through its own online services or distribution channels at prices or conditions that are different from those offered through the online intermediation services of the gatekeeper;
Amendment 454 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 5 – paragraph 1 – point d
Article 5 – paragraph 1 – point d
(d) refrain fromnot directly or indirectly preventing or restricting business users and end users from raising issues with any relevant public authority or judicial authority relating to any practice of gatekeepers;
Amendment 465 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 5 – paragraph 1 – point f
Article 5 – paragraph 1 – point f
(f) refrain fromnot requiringe business users or end users to use, subscribe to or register with any other core platform services identified pursuant to Article 3 or which meets the thresholds in Article 3(2)(b) as a condition to access, sign up or register to any of their core platform services identified pursuant to that Articleservice of the gatekeeper as a condition to access, sign up or register to any of their core platform services nor achieve the same result through product design, nor automatically sign users of a core platform service into any such services owned or controlled by the gatekeeper;
Amendment 467 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 5 – paragraph 1 – point f a (new)
Article 5 – paragraph 1 – point f a (new)
(f a) not require the acceptance of supplementary conditions that have by their nature or according to commercial usage, no connection with and are not necessary for the provision of the platform or services to its business users;
Amendment 489 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 5 – paragraph 1 – point g c (new)
Article 5 – paragraph 1 – point g c (new)
(g c) not pre-install any software applications on its core platform services, unless those applications are essential for the integrity of the service, operating system or the device and cannot technically be offered on a standalone basis by third-parties;
Amendment 503 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 6 – paragraph 1 – point c
Article 6 – paragraph 1 – point c
(c) allow theand technically enable business users and end users to installation and effective use of third party software applications or software application stores using, or interoperating with, operating systems of that gatekeeper and allow and enable these software applications orand software application stores to be accessed by means other than the core platform services of that gatekeeper. The end user shall be required to decide which application or application store should become the default. The gatekeeper shall not be prevented from taking proportionate measures to ensure that third party software applications or software application stores do not endanger the integrity of the hardware or operating system provided by the gatekeeper provided that the gatekeeper can prove that such measures are necessary, proportionate and justified to safeguard the integrity of the hardware or operating system;
Amendment 587 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 7 – paragraph 1
Article 7 – paragraph 1
1. The measures implemented by the gatekeeper to ensure full compliance with the obligations laid down in Articles 5 and 6 shall be effective in achieving the objective of the relevant obligation. The gatekeeper shall be responsible for, and be able to demonstrate full compliance with these obligations (‘accountability’). The burden of proof regarding the efficiency lies on the gatekeeper. The gatekeeper shall demonstrate which measures have been taken to comply with these obligations. The gatekeeper shall ensure that these measures are implemented in compliance with Regulation (EU) 2016/679 and Directive 2002/58/EC, and with legislation on cyber security, consumer protection and product safety.
Amendment 649 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 11 – paragraph 2
Article 11 – paragraph 2
2. Where consent for collecting and, processing and sharing of personal data is required to ensure compliance with this Regulation, a gatekeeper shall take the necessary steps to either enable business users to directly obtain the required consent to their processing, where required under Regulation (EU) 2016/679 and Directive 2002/58/EC, or to comply with Union data protection and privacy rules and principles in other ways including by providing business users with duly anonymised data where appropriate. The gatekeeper shall not make the obtaining of this consent by the business user more burdensome than for its own services, and shall offer users a choice in a neutral way, safeguarding the autonomous decision-making of business users or end users via form, function or operation of the user interface.
Amendment 716 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 16 – paragraph 6 a (new)
Article 16 – paragraph 6 a (new)
6 a. In order to ensure effective compliance by the gatekeeper with its obligations laid down in Articles 5 or 6, the Commission shall regularly review the remedies imposed in accordance with paragraph 1 or commitments accepted in accordance with paragraph 6. The Commission shall be entitled to require changes to the imposed remedies if, following an investigation, it finds that the remedies are not effective.
Amendment 744 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 24 – paragraph 2 a (new)
Article 24 – paragraph 2 a (new)
2 a. Member States shall designate authorities with particular expertise and experience to assist the Commission in the enforcement of this Regulation. Those authorities shall support the Commission in the tasks of monitoring and investigating compliance. The Commission shall entitle designated authorities to use the powers enshrined in Articles 19, 20 and 21 for this purpose as well as to receive complaints from end users and business users on non- compliance by gatekeepers in their territory to report them to the Commission.