In recent years, it seems like a number of government entities are looking at the way that large technology firms operate. The European Union (EU) for example, has not been shy when it comes to probing the activities of firms like Google and Facebook, especially when it pertains to issues of antitrust.

Those efforts could soon be intensifying, as the Financial Times (Paywall) reports that the EU is drawing up a “hit list” of roughly 20 technology companies that it wants to impose stricter regulations on.

While the report does not detail which 20 firms in particular have been earmarked, perhaps unsurprisingly, many of them hail from the United States. This as the criteria for the list are said to be market share, user counts, and the dependency on having users on its platform/s.

As such, those criteria immediately bring the likes of Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google to mind. Those four firms in particular have come under increasing scrutiny, with the latest effort bring that of a Democrat-led subcommittee investigating their dominance of respective markets.

As for what stricter regulations the aforementioned 20 firms could be in for, the report notes that they would be subjected to aspects such as mandatory sharing of data, as well as greater transparency in terms of their dealings.

Unfortunately the report does not detail whether these regulations would be enforced should the 20 listed firms wish to operate in the EU, along with what kinds of fines could be imposed for failure to comply or infringe upon what is outlined by the European Union.

When this list sees the light of day, it should be interesting to see what he reaction from firms like Google and Apple would be like, especially as both have voiced their concerns about over regulation in the past, as well as floated the idea of leaving regions as a result.

[Image – Photo by Guillaume Périgois on Unsplash]