The European Parliament is seeing red following the refusal of the GAFA CEOs (Google, Amazon, Facebook and Apple) to appear at a hearing which the European Parliament’s Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON) sought to organise. MEPs are now looking for ways to appeal.
The idea of a GAFA hearing to discuss anti-competitive practices in the digital world and in the field of taxation took root in September 2020, specifically at the request of MEP Stéphanie Yon-Courtin (Renew Europe, France) (see EUROPE 12554/27).
The organisation of the hearing was given the green light by the Bureau of the European Parliament, after which the ECON Commission was able to officially send out the invitations (see EUROPE 12558/28).
However, according to our information, GAFA has refused to send their CEO to the hearing—an essential condition for MEPs. In these circumstances, the political groups felt that it was better not to hold the meeting, but far from giving up, they have decided to examine the remedies available to them.
Parliament’s legal service issued an opinion on this issue in early March. And it is adamant that there are no countermeasures available to sanction GAFAs that refuse to send their CEOs to Parliament. Parliament’s rules of procedure do not establish any obligation to accept an invitation to attend a public hearing, it explains.
Article 123 does provide for measures to be taken in the event of non-compliance with a formal invitation to a hearing or committee meeting, in the form of withdrawal or deactivation of Parliament access badges. However, such a measure does not seem to apply to the current situation, as Article 123 concerns the removal of the badge of the person invited to the hearing and not of the company, according to the legal service.
Considering this interpretation too narrow, the political group coordinators for the ECON Commission reportedly decided at their meeting on Tuesday 23 March to refer the issue to the Conference of Presidents of the political groups to identify all the options available to them. (Original version in French by Marion Fontana)