Digital Markets Act ("DMA")

Some digital services and actors have become very large and influential by connecting business users with end-users, creating dependencies among users, and allowing themselves access to collect vast amounts of data. These companies thus act as "gatekeepers" by significantly influencing the frameworks and rules for innovation, consumer choice, and competition in the market.

Purpose: DMA complements the EU competition rules and aim at redressing the imbalance of power in the digital sector, ensuring that these markets remain fair and open for the benefit of business users and end-users of digital platforms. The regulation promotes innovation, growth, and competitiveness, both in the European and global markets.

Scope: relevant for companies offering ‘core platform services’ to business and end-users established or located in the EU, together with certain objective conditions related to turnover, number of users, and market position, defined as ‘gatekeepers’ (typically Alphabet (Google/YouTube), Meta (Facebook/Instagram), ByteDance (TikTok), Snap Inc. (Snapchat), Apple (AppStore), and Amazon). DMA applies irrespective of the place of establishment or residence of the gatekeepers and of the laws otherwise applicable to the services.

Core obligations: among other things, gatekeepers can no longer compile data across different services or platforms without explicit consent from users, favor their own products and services on their platforms, prevent consumers from connecting to businesses outside their own platforms, or from uninstalling pre-installed software or apps if they wish to do so. Furthermore, gatekeepers must, e.g. allow third parties to cooperate with the gatekeeper’s own services in certain specific situations and allow their business users to promote their offers and conclude contracts with their customers outside the gatekeeper’s platform.

Short facts