U.S. big tech corporations including Google, Meta, Netflix and Amazon are expected to avoid mandatory obligations under the European Union's new digital regulations and be limited to voluntary cooperation. The EU has chosen to include big tech in the Digital Networks Act (DNA), to be unveiled this month, as voluntary participants rather than as a target of binding regulation.
According to Reuters on the 8th, in the Digital Networks Act bill slated for release on the 20th, big tech corporations will not be subject to mandatory rules but will be classified as participating in a voluntary framework. As a result, these corporations will remain at the level of taking part in discussions under the coordination of the Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications (BEREC) and sharing best practices, with no new legal obligations imposed.
The Digital Networks Act is a regulation that major European telecom operators have strongly demanded, and in the early stages of discussion, the possibility was raised of including a plan to impose network usage fees on big tech corporations. The backdrop was that services from U.S. corporations such as Google, Netflix and Facebook account for a considerable share of internet traffic in Europe.
The European Commission also suggested last July that the issue of "fair contribution" would be addressed in the forthcoming Digital Networks Act, hinting at the introduction of network usage fees. However, the atmosphere shifted as pressure from the U.S. Donald Trump administration continued. The White House said the withdrawal of network usage fees was discussed as a condition in trade talks with the EU, and the Commission also stepped back, saying network usage fees were not a workable solution.
Amid this trend, the new bill was finalized in a form that asks only for voluntary cooperation instead of imposing mandatory rules on big tech. Instead, it is expected to broadly cover the overall communications environment, including spectrum policy and improvements to network infrastructure.
According to the draft bill, the Commission will set terms for spectrum usage rights, while the sales conditions and pricing authority for spectrum auctions will be left to national regulators. Through this, governments are expected to secure several billion euros in funding.
The Commission will also present guidelines to national regulators for building fiber-optic infrastructure and plans to allow the deadline for transitioning copper cable networks to fiber to be pushed back from the current 2030 to a later date.
The Digital Networks Act will be proposed by the executive vice president in charge of EU technological sovereignty, security and democracy, and is expected to be promulgated after several months of discussions among EU member states and the European Parliament.