BRUSSELS (Reuters) – EU lawmakers have invited senior Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Alphabet officials to a Feb. 1 hearing in Brussels as they try to downplay the powers of U.S. tech giants.
The European Parliament in the coming months will submit proposals to the European Commission to encourage companies to play fair with competitors and do more to tackle fake online news and content. harmful or severely fined.
“The purpose of the forthcoming hearing is to have an exchange with key executives of the four major platform companies to learn about and meet their current business models and future concepts. the challenges of changing market conditions, ”said an invitation to the companies that saw Reuters.
“The event will help prepare members of the European Parliament for the forthcoming talks on a possible new regulation of the digital sector. For these reasons, we wish to clarify that this invitation is for Chief Executives only. “
The invitation said lawyers were willing to change the date to another day in February or March, however, people who knew the companies were skeptical that they would accept the invitation.
Earlier on Friday it emerged that Alphabetical President Sundar Pichai will hold a video conference call with EU antitrust leader Margrethe Vestager on 25 January, according to the European Commission’s timetable.
Vestager, which is pushing for strict new rules, will discuss digital issues and competition with Pichai, a spokesman for the Commission said.
Reciting with Foo Yun Chee; Edited by Elaine Hardcastle