Executives from European online players including Spotify and Deezer called for the EU to toughen-up laws intended to address alleged unfair business practices of US giants such as Apple and Google, Financial Times (FT) reported.

In a joint letter, the executives and representatives from the gaming and broadcast sectors, argued regulations drawn-up earlier this year do not go far enough in addressing “abuse of privilege” by the platform providers in their dealings with businesses.

The letter brands the tech giants “gatekeepers to the digital economy”, by using their dominant position to impose conditions to gain access to their channels. Apple, for example, tightly controls access to iOS devices, even specifying which payment methods can be used.

FT said EU competition and business ministers will meet this week to discuss the draft legislation, which will then pass through the European Parliament and European Commission before it can come into force.

While the guidelines will improve communication on how platform companies rank products and call for a formal complaints process, the executives wrote “transparency alone will not rebalance the relationship between platforms and the businesses that depend on them”.

The calls are, of course, not new, and Spotify and Deezer have been particularly vocal in their complaints. Google, Apple and Amazon all have their own music streaming services, but for them it forms part of a wider ecosystem around content and devices, whereas for Spotify and Deezer it is the be-all and end-all.