The wall street journal : France plans to redouble its push to tighten regulation of big U.S. tech companies
PARIS—France plans to redouble its push to tighten regulation of big U.S. tech companies at the national and European level, part of Europe's backlash against the growing influence—and profit—of a handful of large Internet firms.
The French government will begin public consultations on a new "digital" law for France, and start working on a common strategy with Germany to develop new digital regulations in Europe for firms like Google Inc. and Facebook Inc.,said Axelle Lemaire, France's junior minister for digital affairs on Friday.
"The risk is that the Internet of tomorrow will be paralyzed by monopolies," Ms. Lemaire said. "They have the power of life or death over a large number of players in the digital ecosystem."
Spokesmen for Google and Facebook didn't immediately have any comment.
France has been pushing for the better part of a year for more regulation of Internet companies, ordering up a report last summer, and calling for the issue to be included in a digital summit in Brussels last fall.
Now the country hopes to build on broader pressure facing American Web firms in Europe. A coalition of French and German politicians and companies have been pressuring the EU to scrap its tentative antitrust agreement with Google to settle concerns that it abuses its dominant Internet-search engine.
At the same time, European officials are digging into tax structures that companies—often tech firms—use to reduce the amount of tax they pay on revenue generated in Europe. A European court last month also decided that search engines such as Google must implement a right to be forgotten for individuals in some cases.
In France, the push for new regulation comes with the backing of a government advisory panel, the Conseil National du Numerique, which issued a 122-page report Friday with 14 recommendations aimed at ensuring what it calls the "neutrality of platforms."
One recommendation, endorsed Friday by ....
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