Tech giants must treat Flemish SMEs better

SMEs deserve better treatment by tech giants like Amazon and Google. Europe is developing new rules intended to ensure that SMEs get a better service from the online platforms on which they offer their products. Furthermore, those platforms must offer greater insights into how their search engines arrange rankings.

David versus Goliath

MEP Anneleen Van Bossuyt is the chair of the Digital Internal Market committee and welcomes the initiative: “On the online marketplaces, it is often David versus Goliath. A small Flemish SME selling clothes on Amazon.com has to contact a call centre in the US when there are problems on the website. This has already often caused problems. Complaints are not handled or are handled poorly. The rules are often not transparent. Starting legal proceedings costs a huge amount of money. Europe is now making more resources available to them to fight unfair practices.”

Honest and respectful cooperation

Europe also wants more transparency in the way in which for example restaurants are rated. Anneleen Van Bossuyt says: “Today, when a platform like Yelp suddenly and without reason places a restaurant on the Korenmarkt in Ghent ten places further down in the ranking, it does it without so much as saying a word. These platforms must inform companies better and give them a reason why a product or service suddenly gets a different place in the ranking. An honest and respectful way of cooperating is necessary. Both parties need each other.”

More clarity

On the other hand, these platforms must get more clarity in the tangle of national rules. “That’s a good thing. Furthermore this will give the consumer more confidence and ensure information that is more correct and honest. We must in any case remain watchful that this new European legislation can be implemented easily. For a company like Facebook, it is relatively easy to implement new rules. That’s not at all the case for small, starting companies,” MEP Anneleen Van Bossuyt concludes.