The European Parliament approves new online platform rules

The European Parliament has approved a new regulation on platform-to-business trading practices. The aim is to curb unfair practices in online platforms and to help a establish fair, trusted, and innovation-driven environment. The EU wants to give small businesses more leverage in case of grievances, increase transparency, clear terms of services, and improve dispute resolution programmes. Likely to be impacted are tech giants like Google Play, Apple App store, Facebook, Booking.com, and Amazon. First of its kind, the regulation is expected to be approved by the European Council and will be effective sometime in 2020.