EU faces uphill battle to rein in big tech

The EU's landmark curbs on how tech titans do business online kick in from Thursday, but just how far Brussels succeeds in bringing the giants to heel will hinge on bitter battles that still lie ahead. Wielding a tough new legal arsenal, Brussels is determined to force a change in behaviour by the world's biggest tech firms, to create a more competitive online field that allows smaller players to flourish. The bloc's new Digital Markets Act (DMA) will usher in a long list of do's and don'ts for six so-called "gatekeepers" designated by the European Union: Apple, Amazon, Google owner Alphabet, TikTok parent ByteDance, Meta and Microsoft. "What we need right here from gatekeepers is changing behaviour," the bloc's competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager told AFP in an interview on the eve of the law coming into force. The big six will have to tell Brussels about any buyout, large o...