Europe to crackdown on Big Tech with landmark digital rules agreement

The European Union will clamp down on Big Tech companies such as Facebook and Google thanks to landmark digital rules agreement aimed at regulating online "gatekeepers" that was agreed to late Thursday.

EU officials agreed on the final wording of the Digital Markets Act, a long-awaited overhaul of the region's digital regulations, that aims to stop the tech giants from unfairly dominating digital markets by threatening to impose large fines on them and even includes the possibility of breaking the companies up.

The act, which continues to require other approvals before becoming law, would force the tech companies to have more stringent restrictions on how people's information is used for targeted online ads (a key source of revenue for companies such as Facebook and Google) while also requiring different platforms to work together to make users online experience more seamless.