Author: Anaïs Strauss

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Welcome to OVHcloud!

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Welcome to OVHcloud!

The European association Open Internet Project (OIP) is very pleased to announce the membership of OVHcloud!

With this new member, OIP looks forward to continue to work on competitive issues related to the cloud marker. Indeed, OVHcloud, Scaleway and Clever Cloud – three emblematic and major players of the French cloud, committed to digital sovereignty and respect for market rules – wish to bring their expertise and share their visions of a competitive and fair European cloud market, and thus support the actions of OIP which aim to fight against any abuse of dominant position on tech markets.

OVHcloud is a global player and the European leader in the Cloud, operating more than 400,000 servers in 33 datacenters located on 4 different continents. Based on a unique integrated model, the group manages its entire value chain to deploy a more environmentally friendly cloud. This unique approach allows the company to innovate continuously to independently cover all the uses of its 1.6 million customers around the world. OVHcloudoffers the latest solutions that combine performance, price predictability and complete sovereignty over their data to support their growth in complete freedom.

« I am very pleased that OVHcloud has joined the OIP! We had the objective to expand the OIP in the coming months, and the two recent memberships of Scaleway and OVHcloud are emblematic of our ambitions and objectives: to become an even more powerful association in the service of healthy and fair competition in the European digital market! As CEO of Clever Cloud, it has never seemed so important and crucial to me to combine the strengths of the "fair play" players, in order to truly influence the future decisions that will have to be taken by our Governments in order to favor innovative, competitive European players, always at the service of their customers! »
says Quentin Adam
CEO de Clever Cloud and Président of OIP
« OVHcloud has always placed the collective at the heart of its approach. Thanks to a strong ecosystem of partners, we have the ambition to promote an innovative, sustainable and efficient technology that respects our European values. By joining the Open Internet Project, we are even more committed to promoting and defending in Paris and Brussels the conditions for a dynamic and fair cloud market for all players in our industry and for the benefit of our users' freedom of choice »
adds Michel Paulin
CEO of OVHcloud

All OIP members welcome OVHcloud and look forward to working together to pursue their common goals!

Contacts:

Léonidas Kalogeropoulos, Délégué Général : +33607315126 –  l.k@openinternetproject.eu

Anaïs Strauss, Chargée de mission :+33757503010 – anais.strauss@openinternetproject.eu

26, rue de l’Université • 75007 Paris
+33 (0)1 53 45 91 91

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The OIP welcomes the CJEU’s decision to uphold Google’s €4.125 billion fine for abuse of dominant position on Android

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The OIP welcomes the CJEU's decision to uphold Google's €4.125 billion fine for abuse of dominant position on Android

« But fines must not become provisional taxes on abuse of dominance! »

The European association Open Internet Project (OIP) welcomes the decision of the Court of Justice of the European Union, which confirmed on 14 September 2022 that Google had indeed abused its dominant position, as the European Commission had ruled in the Android case back in 2018, following various complaints filed with the Commission, including OIP’s.

The Commission rightly considered that Google was imposing illegal restrictions on Android device manufacturers in order to promote the use of its own search engine. Google was thus using its Android operating system to maintain the dominant position of its search engine. Moreover, in its decision, the CJEU notices that Google does not contest that the pre-installation of a search engine on an Android phone is ” likely to improve the results of the search services concerned”, which confirms that Google abused its dominant position to deny its competitors the possibility to improve their service, in detriment of consumers’ interest.

« I am satisfied with this decision, but I want to remind you that this decision comes 7 years after the beginning of the procedure, a procedure that is not finished, because both parties can still appeal. It has been 7 years since Google abused its dominant position on Android, trying to block alternatives, such as Qwant, one of the founding members of our association, from offering their services to European users. The only way to stop Google's anti-competitive practices from the beginning would have been to pronounce interim measures. But the current wording of the legislation governing the use of these services has not allowed the Commission to do so. For the past 7 years, we have been lobbying for the standards of interim measures to be readjusted so that they can be used by the Commission, as we can see there is no other way to dissuade Google from increasing its anticompetitive behavior! »
says Léonidas Kalogeropoulos
General Delegate of the OIP
« It is time for a change in the standard of interim measures! We see in the consultation on Regulation 1/2003 on the EU antitrust rules a real opportunity to change the wording, so that the word "irreparable" damage is replaced by "immediate" damage. Imposing a fine, whether it is a record or not, on a tech giant, and we have been observing this for more than 13 years now, is unfortunately useless because the fines become a provisioned tax on the abuse of a dominant position! For the year 2021 Google (Alphabet) alone had a $76 billion net profit: Alphabet could therefore have paid 18 times this €4.125 billion fine, while remaining productive. But requiring this same giant to cease practices judged to be anti-competitive within a short period of time would finally tip the balance in favor of healthy and balanced competition, which is so necessary for virtuous European players.»
says Quentin Adam
CEO of Clever Cloud and President of the OIP

Contacts:

Léonidas Kalogeropoulos, Délégué Général : +33607315126 –  l.k@openinternetproject.eu

Anaïs Strauss, Chargée de mission :+33757503010 – anais.strauss@openinternetproject.eu

26, rue de l’Université • 75007 Paris
+33 (0)1 53 45 91 91

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OIP welcomes the adoption of the DMA, a crucial step towards the regulation of Tech giants !

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OIP welcomes the adoption of the DMA, a crucial step towards the regulation of Tech giants !

Open Internet Project (OIP), a European association of organizations and European digital industrialists, welcomes the agreement reached by the trialogue on Thursday 24 March 2022 on the Digital Markets Act (DMA) regulation.

OIP welcomes the agreement reached by the trilogue on Thursday March 24, 2022 on the DMA regulation, and notes with satisfaction that the legislation relating to digital markets in Europe will finally enter a new era.

« The DMA agreement is a significant step forward, which we welcome. Thanks to this new regulation, the European rules governing GAFAM will be much stricter, in particular with the recognition of the notion of gatekeeper, and will allow European alternative solutions – often the very first victims of anti-competitive practices – to develop under more favorable conditions ! »
emphasizes Leonidas Kalogeropoulos
OIP General Delegate

While the European digital market is dominated by a few monopolistic players, the DMA is the promise of more dynamic, open and healthy competition, which should allow innovative digital companies to develop under fairer conditions.

The DMA specifically targets gatekeepers, i.e. “gatekeepers”. As a reminder, these are digital companies in a dominant position and which control in particular the access of their users to the services of third-party companies. Recognizing their key position is key to being able to regulate them as such.

Gatekeepers indeed act as market regulators, they often impose barriers to entry, and ignore our existing European laws. OIP is particularly pleased that the entry into force of the DMA can make it possible to make, in the event of abuse, the sanctions against these gatekeepers more restrictive and dissuasive than before.

However, OIP stresses that there are still points of vigilance, in particular on the speed of application of the text as well as the use of precautionary measures. The final wording (article 22) does not seem to have taken into account the amendments of Parliament, aimed at making the standards for the application of precautionary measures better suited to their effective use. OIP recalls in this respect that the success of the DMA will necessarily depend on the ability of the European authorities to enforce it within short deadlines and, if necessary, with dissuasive sanctions.

Contacts:

Léonidas Kalogeropoulos, General Delegate : +33607315126 –  l.k@openinternetproject.eu

Anaïs Strauss, Adviser :+33757503010 – anais.strauss@openinternetproject.eu

26, rue de l’Université • 75007 Paris
+33 (0)1 53 45 91 91

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