“Big Techs” Face Growing Regulatory Efforts Around the World

Big tech companies, the “Big Techs” are facing advancing regulatory efforts in the sector in Europe, Asia and the United States, with new laws that could place strict limits on how these companies treat smaller competitors.

Some proposals could ban common practices, such as companies giving their own products a boost on their platforms, something that could have an operational impact, executives and analysts say.

At the same time, global regulators are pushing ahead with dozens of competition and privacy-related investigations that could lead to more than just fines for tech giants.

Under consideration, according to regulators and executives, are orders or agreements that could cut off transatlantic data flows, disrupt some types of digital advertising, delay major product changes or force ongoing oversight of activities.

So far, increasing regulation has had little effect on corporate results in Silicon Valley. The market cap of five of the world’s biggest tech companies is $9.31 trillion, nearly four times what it was five years ago, nearly double the growth of the S&P 500 index at the time.

But that could be changing. The new wave of scrutiny has already made it harder for companies to cash in on the growth potential of acquisitions, says Evercore’s head of internet research, Mark Mahaney.

In November, the UK Competition and Markets Authority instructed Meta Platforms’ Facebook to sell animated image company Giphy, saying the acquisition would limit competition between UK platforms and advertisers. Facebook says the deal benefits consumers and has appealed.

Tech companies are also making other changes. Facebook announced in November that it would shut down its facial recognition system in part because of potential regulations.

Alphabet’s Google has agreed to work closely with the Competition and Markets Authority on its plan to remove cookies, which track online activity, from its Chrome browser.

Now, company executives are looking at how to create new appeals processes for content removals on the YouTube video service and reworking how it handles user and partner information internally, says Kent Walker, senior vice president of global affairs.

While tech companies say they agree their industry needs new regulations, they are opposing some specific proposals — in part because of the impact they could have. Some executives say they fear that requirements in the proposed online content rules could encourage companies to remove content they only disagree with, dampening free speech.