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A frank intervention in the European parliament last month captured the frustrations that are blunting the EU’s attempts to curb the powers of Big Tech.
上月在欧洲议会(European parliament)进行的一场坦诚的辩论体现了一种挫败感,这种挫败感正在削弱欧盟遏制科技巨头权力的努力。
Last year, the EU unveiled a radical blueprint for tech regulation that would put onerous responsibilities on the likes of Google, Facebook and Amazon to clean up their platforms and ensure fair competition.
去年,欧盟公布了一份关于科技监管的激进蓝图,将要求谷歌(Google)、Facebook和亚马逊(Amazon)等公司承担重责,以清理它们的平台,确保公平竞争。
But since then, the package of measures has become bogged down in the European parliament, and now risks being watered down and heavily delayed.
但自那以后,这一揽子措施在欧洲议会陷入僵局,现在有被削弱和严重拖延的风险。
There are even fears in Brussels that the new rules will not be in place before Margrethe Vestager, the EU’s competition and digital policy chief, leaves her post in three years.
在布鲁塞尔,甚至有人担心,在欧盟竞争与数字政策主管玛格丽特•韦斯塔格(Margrethe Vestager)三年后离任之前,新规则都不会开始实施。
“It sounded like we had agreed but that is not the case . . . at all. We are a long way from having a common position on this,” Evelyne Gebhardt, a German MEP, said in exasperation during last month’s debate.
“听起来好像我们已经达成了一致,但事实并非如此……完全不是。在这个问题上,我们距离达成共识还有很长的路要走,”德国欧洲议会议员伊芙琳•格布哈特(Evelyn Gebhardt)在上个月的辩论中愤怒地说。
The slow progress also gives Big Tech more time to fully capture key sectors of the economy. “If we wait too long some markets will not be able to be repaired any more. This is about protecting consumers and small companies in Europe. We need to get this done as soon as possible,” said one person directly involved in the parliamentary debate.
缓慢的进展也让大型科技公司有更多时间充分占领经济中的关键领域。“如果我们等得太久,一些市场将无法再得到修复。这是为了保护欧洲的消费者和小公司。我们需要尽快完成这项工作,”一位直接参与议会辩论的人士表示。
The two proposed bills are the Digital Markets Act (DMA), which is designed to force the so-called gatekeepers, such as Google, to ensure a level playing field on their vast online platforms, and the Digital Services Act (DSA), which clarifies the responsibilities of Big Tech for keeping illegal content off their services.
这两项拟议的法案是《数字市场法》(DMA)和《数字服务法》(DSA),前者旨在迫使谷歌等所谓的看门人在其庞大的网络平台上确保公平的竞争环境,后者则明确了大型科技公司在阻止非法内容进入其服务方面的责任。
But the package has split MEPs along a number of fronts.
但该方案在许多方面让欧洲议会议员产生了分歧。
The biggest fight is over which companies should be captured by the regulation. Andreas Schwab, the lead MEP representing the powerful EPP Group in the parliament, has been pushing for the legislation to focus only on the largest platforms. But his rivals want the legislation to be wider in scope and target a number of digital services.
最大的争论是哪些公司应该被纳入监管范围。安德烈斯•施瓦布(Andreas Schwab)是欧洲议会议员领袖,代表着议会中强大的欧洲人民党(EPP),他一直在推动立法只关注最大型平台。但他的反对者希望立法的范围更广,并针对一些数字服务。
“If the threshold is too low, it would also capture a number of traditional companies. But this law is not for the general economy but it is specifically to target digital gatekeepers that are shutting down markets,” Schwab told the Financial Times.
“如果门槛过低,也会涵盖许多传统企业。但这项法律并不适用于一般经济,而是专门针对关闭市场的数字看门人,”施瓦布对英国《金融时报》表示。
Under his proposals, only companies with a market value in excess of €80bn would fall under the new laws. Schwab also wants to target solely the core digital services of each company, for example, targeting only Google’s search and advertising business.
根据他的提议,只有市值超过800亿欧元的公司才会被纳入新法律的管辖范围。施瓦布还希望只针对每一家公司的核心数字服务,例如,只针对谷歌的搜索和广告业务。
But the Socialists & Democrats (S&D), the second-largest political group in the European parliament, want to include other types of digital services, such as video streaming, music streaming, mobile payments and cloud services.
但欧洲议会第二大政治团体——社会主义者和民主人士进步联盟(S&D)希望包括其他类型的数字服务,如视频流媒体、音乐流媒体、移动支付和云服务。
“If we only go after five companies this won’t fix the problem,” said the Dutch MEP Paul Tang, who said companies worth more than €50bn should be regulated, a threshold that would also capture the Netherlands-based Booking.com, Germany’s SAP and Airbnb.
荷兰欧洲议会议员Paul Tang表示:“如果我们只针对5家公司,这并不能解决问题。”他表示,价值超过500亿欧元的公司应该受到监管。总部位于荷兰的Booking.com、德国的SAP和爱彼迎(Airbnb)也应被纳入这一门槛。
“I fear new gatekeepers will rise instantly once you have dealt with Google and the rest. We need the legislation to be future proof,” Tang said. “We have waited more than 20 years to reform the rules of the internet and so we will need to make it strong enough for the upcoming 20 years.”
“我担心一旦你处理完谷歌和其他的事情,新的看门人会马上出现。我们需要立法作为未来的证明。我们已经等了20多年来改革互联网规则,因此我们需要让规则在未来20年足够强大。”
He also said his party believed the legislation should go after those platforms that offer more than one service because “otherwise Big Tech will know how to bypass the laws with their army of expensive lawyers and this will be a missed opportunity”.
他还表示,S&D认为,该法案应该针对那些提供不止一项服务的平台,因为“否则,大型科技公司将知道如何利用他们身价昂贵的律师大军绕过法律,这将是一个错失的机会”。
Schwab, who has been quite vocal against Google’s business model, said too broad a focus would water down the EU’s ability to tackle the biggest problems. “We risk having a law that wants to cover everything and achieves nothing. If this happens, it will be a great win for Google and other big tech companies,” he said.
施瓦布一直强烈反对谷歌的商业模式,他表示,过于宽泛的重点将削弱欧盟解决最大问题的能力。“我们面临的风险是,制定一项覆盖所有领域的法律,实际上却什么也没覆盖。如果这真的发生了,对于谷歌和其他大型科技公司来说,这将是一个巨大的胜利。”
The impasse will not be easily solved. “Everyone has a hard position and nobody is willing to move and compromise,” said a person involved in the debate.
这一僵局不会轻易解决。一位参与辩论的人士表示:“每个人都进退两难,没有人愿意改变和妥协。”
Some remain hopeful that a solution will emerge before EU states, the European Commission and the parliament gather for talks early next year, and before France, which holds the rotating presidency of the EU in 2022, heads into presidential elections in April. A meeting last week between all political parties aimed to bridge some of the gaps.
一些人仍抱有希望,认为在欧盟成员国、欧盟委员会(European Commission)和议会明年初举行会谈之前,以及在明年4月欧盟轮值主席国法国举行总统选举之前,将会出现一个解决方案。上周所有政党之间举行了一次会议,旨在弥合一些分歧。
Separately, MEPs are also fighting over the obligations large platforms should be submitted to. In line with the commission’s proposals, Schwab wants users to give consent over whether their data can be combined across services, for example between Google’s Gmail and YouTube. The socialists want this practice banned.
另外,欧洲议会议员们也在为大型平台应履行的义务而争论不休。根据委员会的提议,施瓦布希望用户同意他们的数据是否可以跨服务组合,例如谷歌的Gmail和YouTube。S&D希望禁止这种做法。
The S&D is also pushing for the new rules to force Big Tech to prove that acquisitions of small businesses are not harming the market or block them from buying smaller rivals, a measure that Schwab considers too extreme. It also wants a ban on the controversial practice of targeting users with ads, but Schwab opposes this.
S&D还在推动新规则,以迫使大型科技公司证明收购小企业不会损害市场,或阻止它们收购规模较小的竞争对手。施瓦布认为这一措施过于极端。它还希望禁止有争议的针对用户投放广告的做法,但施瓦布对此表示反对。
Meanwhile, EU states are also vying to influence the outcome of the process. France wants individual states to have more power to fine big tech companies if they do not clean up their platforms. Ireland and Luxembourg, where several big tech companies are based, prefer the status quo.
与此同时,欧盟国家也在竞相影响这一进程的结果。法国希望,如果大型科技公司不清理自己的平台,单个国家有更大的权力对它们进行罚款。几家大型科技公司的总部所在地爱尔兰和卢森堡更倾向于维持现状。
Under the current rules, only countries where large tech groups are headquartered have the power to impose onerous fines and force platforms to remove illegal content.
根据现行规则,只有大型科技集团总部所在的国家才有权力对其处以高额罚款,并迫使其平台删除非法内容。
“This is the main fight on the DSA that risks derailing it,” said one person with knowledge of the negotiations.
一位了解谈判情况的人士说:“这是关于DSA的主要斗争,但有可能使其脱轨。”