Game and music companies complain to EU about the dominant position of US tech companiesbedrijven

The European streaming services Spotify and Deezer, together with game publishers and developers, have complained to the European Commission about the dominant position of major American tech companies such as Apple and Amazon. They would abuse their position.

The Financial Times reports that the companies have written a letter to the President of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker. In it, the companies ask the Commission to take measures against large American tech companies, because they ‘regularly abuse their advantaged position’. For example, the game and music companies complain about the thirty percent of the purchase amount that Apple takes with purchases in the App Store. Furthermore, the US companies would not give full access to user data.

In this way, European companies want to ensure that the EU creates a ‘level playing field’ and tackles unfair competition. According to the paper, the smaller European companies see their American rivals as ‘gatekeepers of the internet’. The call to the Commission comes at a time when the EU is drafting new rules on how major tech companies interact with other organizations using their platforms for sales. The rules cover, for example, changing terms and the procedure for removing a company from a platform.

The European Commission has already taken action against large American companies such as Google. The search giant was fined 2.4 billion euros in June for favoring its own price comparison site. Google appealed that decision.