LUSA 02/03/2025

Lusa - Business News - Portugal: EU has laws to discipline big tech, maybe too many - lawyer

Lisbon, Feb. 2, 2025 (Lusa) - João Leitão Figueiredo, a lawyer at CMS Portugal, says that Europe has the bases to regulate the behaviour of technology companies, is in a phase of over-regulation and that the issue of social media is essentially political.

"I think, and this is my opinion and I've been expressing it for a few years now, that the European Union has over-regulated," he said when asked about the uncertainties facing social media after Meta announced that it would stop fact-checking in the United States.

"We currently have specific legislation for practically all matters related to technology," from information, access to information and the processing of information, he said.

"I would say that we already have at least the basis for regulating the behaviour of "big tech" companies" and “it makes little sense to me to hyper-regulate, given that we are already in a phase of over-regulation”, so “I think that what is at stake here is above all a political issue”, he added.

João Leitão Figueiredo pointed out that, for the first time, the European Union (EU), or European countries, are "very far from the decision-making centres".

The centre of the world "has not been Europe for many years, but now it is very ignorant of what Europe is. The only asset we have is the personal data of Europeans; we're still a first-world bloc with a lot of information that is appetising to American and Chinese entities," he says.

"What we see here, which was started by Trump in his first term - there was a different legal, methodological and political approach with Biden, and we went back on that -" and “was one of the first things he announced”, concerns the “strategy of controlling social networks”, he pointed out.

For now, "I don't see that Europe needs" more legislation, given that there is the Digital Services Act (DSA), "which already allows us to hold these platforms responsible", the lawyer emphasises.

"We're looking for alternative platforms. I think the issue here is also the war (...) to occupy the space currently occupied by TikTok, will it continue to be Chinese and leave the American market entirely," he asks.

"Will Europe follow suit, a bit like it did with Huawei? With arguments that are mostly political, even more than technical or legal, I think that's above all the doubt," the lawyer who specialises in this area continues.

Huawei "has been labelled by the United States as the most dangerous company when, after all, that has been said, discussed and investigated, to my knowledge, no element has ever been identified, the “silver bullet” has never been identified, which leads us to conclude that this is yet another commercial war," he explained.

In the United States "we have a moment of great unpredictability. In this more commercial stance of the US President's political negotiations, I don't see much of a legal basis for many of the things being done".

In fact, "this mere suspension of the 75 days [on TikTok]" that he would "look favourably" on its purchase in the United States "by Elon Musk or Larry Ellison, the owner of Oracle, shows what he's coming for", he said.

"It's an important, valuable asset that allows them to work more appropriately with certain types of information," adds the lawyer, noting that some point out that TikTok's algorithm “is more efficient” than those of US organisations and that “it could be a competitive advantage to remove it” from alleged Chinese control.

Despite Meta's "change of plans" in the United States, social media must comply with European legislation.

"What changes is the side of the Atlantic, not so much the side here, which may be pressurised to follow a line closer to that of the United States," said the lawyer.

João Leitão Figueiredo doesn't see much concern from the point of view of European legislation.

In Portugal, he believes there are "weaknesses" in "inspecting and validating what is supposed to be complied with in terms of European legislation".

Now, "do we also have the technical capacity to go that far? Most of the issues raised have to do with the possibility of monitoring European citizens, sharing personal information with the Chinese government, or, as was once discussed, even with American companies, sharing this information with the American authorities," he added.

"I think we already have the information, and we have some European institutions working to combat practices that are not lawful," and “a significant set of sanctions applied to some companies for violating European Union legislation”.

This doesn't mean "that we can't do a lot more and a lot better, even though there seems to me to be a certain inertia on the part of Portuguese organisations in this regard," he says.

Other countries with different types of organisations "have been much more energetic and intense in combating certain types of practices that are classed as illegal".

He advocates "political courage to implement certain types of policies that are (...) more effective in combating the behavioural or commercial deviations of these entities", citing Portugal as an example in data protection.

"Our authority is still quite weak, whether in terms of inspection, monitoring or the application of sanctions. When you compare it with Spain, for example, the difference is stark," he points out.

Portugal "ends up being a bit of a safe haven for organisations that don't comply, as opposed to countries like Ireland, France and, in particular, Spain, where there is, objectively, the capacity to investigate and apply sanctions", where "we've had two or three cases" for data breaches.

"It is publicly known that there are numerous data breach situations, but there are no final decisions in these cases, whereas in Spain, we have access to the final decision very quickly," he emphasises.

Therefore, "every time we legislate and try to create a regulatory framework that says that the rights, freedoms and guarantees of European citizens and residents of the European Union are upheld, but then we don't have properly trained bodies - when I say this it's not about a lack of technical capacity - but often it's a lack of human resources and financial resources to carry out their duties properly," he warns.

This "harms the European citizen, particularly the Portuguese citizen, because with a few honourable exceptions, all these “players” in the international market, none of them are European," but from the United States and China, he added.

ALU/ADB // ADB.

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