AMZN Amazon.com Inc

By Natalia Drozdiak 

BRUSSELS--The European Union on Thursday invited public complaints about the behavior in Europe of Internet platforms, most of which are large U.S. technology firms, to help it shape potential new rules it may introduce next year.

In the consultation aimed at consumers and companies that will run until late December, the European Commission--the bloc's executive arm--is seeking insight into concerns about how platforms control data, their pricing policies and market power.

"While their emergence has been generally seen as beneficial, the way that online platforms operate raises issues that require further exploration," the European Commission said in its statement.

The EU outlined plans in May to review the role of online platforms and geo-blocking as part of an effort to bridge together Europe's splintered digital market, sparking concerns among large American tech companies.

In the introduction to the questionnaire published Thursday, the commission cites mainly U.S. tech firms, such as Google., Yelp Inc., Amazon.com Inc., eBay, Uber Technologies Inc., Facebook Inc., and Netflix, as examples of Web platforms. It also includes a few European companies, such as France's ride-hailing company Blablacar and shopping site Twenga, as well as Allegro Group, a Poland-based online auction website.

The questionnaire asks consumers and companies whether they have faced problems dealing with online platforms and whether those problems should be addressed with new rules or left to be dealt with by market forces. The EU also asks whether platforms provide sufficient information about what they do with the users' data they collect.

Respondents are asked whether Internet platforms apply "terms and conditions, which I find unbalanced and do not have the possibility to negotiate" and whether they refuse "access to its services unless specific restrictions are accepted."

The exercise is aimed at gathering more information to decide whether it would be necessary to roll out new rules for Internet platforms in Europe. But in a recent interview with The Wall Street Journal, the EU's digital Commissioner Günther Oettinger said it was "of course clear" that Europe needs rules to regulate Internet platforms because the market is growing fast and the services are entering into all other industry sectors.

James Waterworth, a Brussels-based vice president for the Computer & Communications Industry Association, a lobby group for U.S. Internet companies including Google and Facebook, said it wasn't clear what problems Internet Platforms pose.

"Now that it is beginning this assessment, [the commission] will need to think carefully about the implications for the economy as a whole, particularly European innovators that grow companies here," he added.

The commission also launched a separate questionnaire to gather more information on so-called geo-blocking, a practice by firms to discriminate via price or the range of goods it offers based on the customer's location.

That form asks customers and companies whether they have been a victim of, or have had to impose geo-blocking rules, when buying or selling goods online. It asks what impact it would have on businesses if rules were imposed to end the practice.

Write to Natalia Drozdiak at natalia.drozdiak@wsj.com

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(END) Dow Jones Newswires

September 24, 2015 12:34 ET (16:34 GMT)

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