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Wikipedia

Digital Markets Act

April 26, 2024

Digital Markets Act Regulation 2022 (EU) 2022/1925 ("DMA"), is an EU regulation that aims to make the digital economy fairer and more contestable. The regulation entered into force on 1 November 2022 and became applicable, for the most part, on 2 May 2023.[1][2]

Regulation (EU) 2022/1925
European Union regulation
Text with EEA relevance
TitleRegulation on contestable and fair markets in the digital sector
Made byEuropean Parliament and Council of the European Union
Made underArticle 114 of the TFEU
Journal referenceOJ L 265, 12.10.2022, p. 1–66
History
European Parliament vote5 July 2022
Council Vote18 July 2022
Date made14 September 2022
Preparative texts
Commission proposalCOM/nce again, 2020/842 final
Other legislation
AmendsDirective (EU) 2019/1937
Directive (EU) 2020/1828
Current legislation

The DMA aims at ensuring a higher degree of competition in European digital markets by preventing large companies from abusing their market power and by allowing new players to enter the market.[3] This regulation targets the largest digital platforms operating in the European Union. They are also known as "gatekeepers" due to the "durable" market position in some digital sectors and because they also meet certain criteria related to the number of users, their turnovers, or capitalisation.[4][5][6] Twenty-two services across six companies (deemed "gatekeepers") – Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, ByteDance, Meta, and Microsoft – were identified as "core platform services" by the EU in September 2023.[7] These companies had until 6 March 2024 to comply with all of the Act's provisions.[8]

The list of obligations includes prohibitions on combining data collected from two different services belonging to the same company (e.g., in the case of Meta, its social network Facebook and its communication platform WhatsApp);[9] provisions for the protection of platforms' business users (including advertisers and publishers); legal instruments against the self-preferencing methods used by platforms for promoting their own products (e.g., preferential results for Google's products or services when using Google Search);[10] provisions concerning the pre-installation of some services (e.g., Android);[11] provisions related to bundling practices; and provisions for ensuring interoperability, portability, and access to data for businesses and end-users of platforms.[5] Non-compliance may lead to sanctions, including fines of up to 10% of the worldwide turnover.[5][6]

According to the European Commission, the main objective of this regulation is to regulate the behaviour of the so-called "Big Tech" firms within the European Single Market and beyond.[12] The Commission aims to guarantee a fair level of competition ("level playing field"[12]) on the highly concentrated digital European markets, which are often characterised by a "winner takes all" configuration.[6]

The DMA covers eight different sectors, which it refers to as Core Platforms Services (CPS). Due to the presence of gatekeepers who, to a certain degree, affect the market contestability, the CPS are considered problematic by the European Commission:

In April 2024, Reuters reported on data from six companies which showed that in the first month after the regulations were implemented, independent browsers had seen a spike in users. Cyprus-based Aloha Browser said users in the EU jumped 250% in March. Norway's Vivaldi, Germany's Ecosia and U.S.-based Brave have also seen user numbers rise following the new regulation.[13]

Background edit

EU Competition policy rules edit

The present rules applied within the European Union with regard to digital markets are derived from European and national legislation. Under these circumstances, the basis for competition rules in the EU is established by Articles 101 and 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU). Article 101 addresses anti-competitive agreements and concerted practices that may affect trade between members states or reduce competition in the common market. Article 102 aims to tackle the abuse of dominant positions.[14] All players operating in the common market are therefore subject to these provisions. European and national authorities have identified the need to strengthen the current legislation, given the structural problems that are not covered.[15]

Digital policy in the EU edit

The Digital Markets Act is in line with the legislative developments undertaken by the Juncker Commission between 2014 and 2019. One of the most important pieces of EU digital legislation is represented by the EU copyright rules. This has led to the protection, payment, and recognition of workers in thirty-three sectors and it aims to reward creativity, stimulate investment in the creative sector.[16] Another relevant achievement can be considered the implementation of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in 2016.[17] This regulation sets out the new European framework for the use and circulation of personal data and has a significant impact on the major digital players.[18] In addition, the regulation on platform-to-business trading practices (P2B) has been established to create a fair, transparent and predictable business environment for smaller businesses and traders on online platforms. This regulation has applied in July 2020 and prevents market distortion, encourages healthy competition and prohibits unfair practices.[19]

Legislative procedure edit

The Digital Markets Act proposal was submitted by the European Commission to the European Parliament and to the Council of the European Union on 15 December 2020. Along with the Digital Services Act (DSA),[20] the DMA is part of the Commission's European Digital Strategy entitled Shaping Europe's Digital Future.[12] The proposals were presented by the Executive Vice President of the European Commission for A Europe Fit for the Digital Age, Margrethe Vestager, and by the European Commissioner for Internal Market, Thierry Breton, as members of the Von der Leyen Commission.[12]

On 23 November 2021, the Parliament's Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO) adopted its position on the DMA proposal, and the text was adopted in plenary session of the European Parliament on 15 December 2021.[21] The approved text became the Parliament's mandate for negotiations with the Council, which started under the French presidency of the Council in the first half of 2022.[22] On 25 November 2021, the Council agreed its negotiating position, providing the Presidency with a mandate for the discussions.[23]

On 24 March 2022, the Parliament and the Council meeting in the trilogue format together with the Commission reached a political agreement on the DMA.[24][25][26] The negotiators reached a consensus on the interoperability provisions for large messaging platforms: the said obligations will make it possible for users to communicate between different platforms, giving them more choice against the increasing dominance of certain companies.[27] The choice is expanded also through provisions that guarantee users’ free choice as regards browsers, virtual assistants or search engines, while no interoperability obligation for social networks has been decided upon yet.[27] In the political agreement, platforms with a market capitalization of €75 billion or turnover in the European Economic Area equal to or above €7.5 billion have been included in the rules’ scope.[28] An agreement was reached for penalties, which will be amounting from 10% of annual worldwide turnover due to non-compliance for first infringements up to 20% in the case of repeated infringements.[28] The text of the DMA provisionally agreed in March 2022 was made publicly available by the European institutions only on 22 May 2022.[29]

The DMA was formally adopted by the Parliament on 5 July 2022[30] and by the Council on 19 July 2022,[31] and it was signed into law on 14 September 2022 by Presidents of the Parliament and the Council, which concluded the legislative procedure.[32] The adopted text was published in the Official Journal of the European Union on 12 October 2022, setting it to come into force twenty days after the publication, on 1 November 2022.[2]

The 2 May 2023, 6 months later, the regulation started applying and the potential gatekeepers had 2 months to report to the commission to be identified as gatekeepers. This process would take up to 45 days and after being identified as gatekeepers, they would have 6 months to come into compliance, at the latest the 6 March 2024.[8][33] From 7 March 2024, gatekeepers must comply with the DMA.[34]

Objective of the DMA edit

The DMA specifically targets Big Tech companies.[20] The DMA proposed to classify certain platforms, according to their number of users, capitalisation, market power or turnover, probably including Apple, Google, Facebook and Amazon as "Gatekeepers" making them subject to new obligations.[35]

 
The DMA is a response to concerns about the market power of Big Tech

It aims at preventing large companies from abusing their market power and to allow smaller and new players to enter the market.[3]

Rationale edit

In December 2020, the European Commission released a legislative proposal that intends to protect consumer welfare and to restore a level playing field in the European Union's digital market.[6] At the moment, the economy is being driven to a large extent by the activities conducted through online platforms. A small number of online platforms have come to play a crucial role in the lives of millions of individuals and companies. They intermediate a significant portion of transactions between consumers and businesses, leading to extreme dependencies of many businesses on these important platforms.[36]

In the table below, it can be observed that EU digital markets face a high level of concentration, with companies such as Google or Facebook controlling almost the entirety of a specific market segment.[36]

Sectors Dominant company Share of the EU market[36]
Desktop OS Microsoft Windows 78%
Web browsers Google Chrome 60%
Search Google Search 95%
Social media Facebook 90%
E-commerce Amazon 30% share of users and 60% in terms of market revenues
Travel/booking Booking.com 35%
Video streaming Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, HBO, Sky and Dazn 90% of the market revenues
Audio streaming Spotify

Apple Music and Amazon Music

55%

25%

Mobile OS (global market)[37] Google Android

Apple iOS

72%

27%

The term gatekeeper refers to the ability of intermediary platforms to act as the main "bottleneck" to a large number of market participants, that are not reachable elsewhere. Behind this development are market forces that encompass (1) important economies of scale on the supply side; (2) strong direct and indirect network effects on the demand-side; (3) data-driven competitive advantage; (4) high rate of innovation; and (5) development of conglomerates that structure entire ecosystems.[38] In addition, the combination of these elements can lead to market dynamics that follow the "winner-takes-most" scenarios.[6]

During the last years, serious concerns have been expressed by authorities across the world with regard to the economic power of some digital giants. In Europe, the European Commission – backed by years of enforcement experience in EU competition law[5] – has pointed out that a part of those intermediary platforms may be considered "Gatekeeper" or "structuring platforms" in their respective market segments.[36] Moreover, it has also expressed the concern that Big Tech companies might unlawfully take advantage of their market and bargaining powers, in order to lock in dominant positions (i.e. in the existing markets), to increase their level of influence, and to obtain leading positions in new sectors of activity. Hence, this can be interpreted as providing unfair advantages to the incumbents present in core and ancillary services, as distorting the competition, and as harming the consumers, in the long run, through either increased prices or reduced options.[36] Under EU competition law, reaching a "dominant position" is by no mean considered illegal, nor is the idea of a "winner takes most" scenario. However, practices that lock in dominant positions or that impose unfair conditions, terms to third parties might be treated as unlawful.[6]

The DMA rules edit

General framework edit

The Digital Markets Act sets up a list of conducts that should be outlawed, on the one hand, and obligations that platforms identified as gatekeepers should respect, on the other hand. The list is divided in two different parts, the general blacklisted actions (Article 5) and the case by case assessment that needs to be specified (Article 6).

Criteria defining Gatekeepers edit

The DMA combines quantitative and qualitative criteria in the process of designating gatekeepers. There are three criteria in the legislation:[39]

  • Criteria relating to the size of the companies: (a) a turnover of the company of at least 7.5 billion euro in the European Economic Area for three years at least or (b) a market capitalization or equivalent of at least 75 billion euro;
  • Criteria relating to the place of the company in controlling access of other businesses to final customers: the company needs to have (a) more than 45 million monthly active end users in the EU and (b) more than 10,000 yearly active business in the EU;
  • "An entrenched durable position" which is a qualitative criterion which the regulator considers met if the numbers of active users in the second criterion are met for three years in a row.

Sectors concerned (Core Platforms Services) edit

The DMA covers eight different sectors, also known as Core Platforms Services (CPS). The European Commission considers them problematic because the Gatekeepers' presence prevents market contestability to a certain extent.[4][36] As of September 2023, the designated Gatekeepers and their services are:[40]

Apple's iPadOS is excluded from the list but is currently under investigation to see if it constitutes a gateway for business users, despite not meeting the quantitative thresholds.[41]

Other services that were under investigation include Microsoft's Bing, Edge and Microsoft Advertising; and Apple's iMessage.[40]

On February 13, 2024, the European Commission announced their decision that Bing, Edge, Microsoft Advertising and iMessage don't qualify as gatekeeper services.[42] The European Commission didn't go into detail on their decision other than stating that it was the result of "a thorough assessment of all arguments, taking into account input by relevant stakeholders, and after hearing the Digital Markets Advisory Committee."[42] Despite the lack of detail provided by the European Commission on their decision, multiple outlets speculated that the decision was based on the services not meeting the threshold necessary to be classified as a gatekeeper service. This speculation was based, in part, on an article by the Financial Times from September 2023 that reported that both Microsoft and Apple made appeals on the grounds that there wasn't a big enough user base in Europe for the services under review. The Financial Times received this information from two sources with direct knowledge on the matter.[43][44][45][46][47]

Obligations of gatekeepers edit

  • It may prevent practices known as self-preferencing,[3] applied by companies like Google for better displaying their products among the results of Google search.
  • Gatekeeper companies could also be prohibited from reusing people's personal data. For example, Facebook could be forbidden from using the data obtained from its subsidiary WhatsApp.[48]
  • The proposal ensures rights to the platform's business users.[5] For example, it could prohibit Apple from imposing a 30% commission on all the transactions concluded via App Store.
  • Gatekeepers platforms may also be prohibited from requiring business users to offer their best deals on the platform (for example Amazon required e-book publishers to apply their best conditions on the Amazon e-book marketplace).[5]
  • There are also device neutrality rules regarding the rights to delete pre-installed applications (as in the case of Apple iOS or Google Android for example) and to install apps from other sources.[5]
  • Protection rights for business users of platforms (including advertisers and publishers).[5]
  • Prohibition of some bundling practices.[5]
  • Provisions for ensuring a higher degree of data portability, interoperability, and access to data for the platform's business and end-users.[5]
  • Companies that do not comply with the new obligations may risk fines up to 10% on their worldwide turnover.[49]

The two following sections detail each rule individually and mention, when it is the case, the concrete example that determined the commission to include them.

Forbidden actions edit

This list comprises seven obligations and prohibitions for addressing the unfair trading practices. All the identified gatekeepers will have to respect these provisions:[4]

(a) Prevents Gatekeepers to combine personal data coming from Core Platforms Services (CPS) with data collected through other services of the same Gatekeepers or from a third party. Also, it prevents end-users being signed-in to other services offered by the Gatekeepers. However, this can be done only if the choice has been presented to the end-user and consent given.[4][38]

Combining personal data from different sources was ruled illegal by the German Federal Cartel Office in 2019, in a case against Facebook.[5] The company was also fined €110 million in May 2017 for notifying the Commission that it would not be possible to combine data coming from Facebook and WhatsApp, at the time of the acquisition of WhatsApp in 2014. However, the Commission found that this practice constituted a possibility since 2014, given the fact that WhatsApp inserted this option in its terms of services privacy policy in 2016.[9][50]

(b) allow business users to offer the same products or services to end-users through third party online intermediation services at prices or conditions that are different from those offered through the online intermediation services of the Gatekeeper.[4]

This has already been considered illegal in a competition law-case concerning Amazon e-books. In its contracts with the publishers of E-books, Amazon required them to offer at least the best price or conditions that they proposed to any other competitors.[51][52] This article also derives from the cases concerning online travel agencies such as Booking.com or Expedia.[5][53]

(c) allow business users to promote offers to end users acquired via the core platform service, and to conclude contracts with these end users regardless of whether for that purpose they use the core platform services of the gatekeeper or not, allow end users to access and use, through the core platform services of the gatekeeper, content, subscriptions, features or other items by using the software application of a business user, where these items have been acquired by the end users from the relevant business user without using the core platform services of the gatekeeper [4]

The legal character of this kind of practices is currently investigated by the European Commission in a case concerning the App Store of Apple and the 30% commission that they charged to all the subscriptions made through the App Store.[54][55][56]

(d) refrain from preventing or restricting business users from raising issues with any relevant public authority relating to any practice of gatekeepers[4]

This is a general practice that does not come from the case law but it guarantees the right of business-users to raise possible concerns to public authorities (such as the European Commission).[5]

(e) refrain from requiring business users to use, offer or interoperate with an identification service of the gatekeeper in the context of services offered by the business users using the core platform services of that gatekeeper.[4]

Also known as a bundling practice, it prevents gatekeepers from forcing business users to use the ID of the Core Platform Services when they offer their services. Thus, it is often related to advertisers or publishers issues such as Google and their methods of collecting data.[57][58][5]

(f) Prevents the bundling of different CPSs of the platform that are identified as gatekeeper.[4]

For this bundling practice, in 2018, Google was fined with €4.3 billion by the Commission in a decision on Android.[10] The company breached the antitrust rules of the EU by forcing Android's users to pre-install its own services, such as Google search and Google Chrome.[11][59][60] This way, Google secured its dominant position in terms of internet search.[10]

(g) provide advertisers and publishers to which it supplies advertising services, upon their request, with information concerning the price paid by the advertiser and publisher, as well as the amount or remuneration paid to the publisher, for the publishing of a given ad and for each of the relevant advertising services provided by the gatekeeper

This last obligation is linked to the investigation of the European Commission on Google's data and advertising practices.[57][61][5]

Case by case assessment edit

Article 6 of the DMA contains a second list of eleven obligations and prohibitions for gatekeepers. These obligations are specified individually by the European Commission after consulting the gatekeepers concerned.

(a) refrain from using, in competition with business users, any data not publicly available, which is generated through activities by those business users, including by the end users of these business users, of its core platform services or provided by those business users of its core platform services or by the end users of these business users[4]

The potential ban of this practice derives from the Amazon Marketplace case that is under investigation by the European Commission.[62] The Commission claimed that Amazon breached antitrust rules by using "non-public data" from their business users in order to compete with them.[63][62]

(b) To guarantee the possibility for end-users to uninstall pre-installed applications on its CPS.[4]

This obligation derives from the cases on Microsoft Internet Explorer and Google Android, where the European Commission forced them to allow end-users to uninstall pre-installed app from their core platforms services.[5][64][10]

(c) allow the installation and effective use of third party software applications or software application stores using, or interoperating with, operating systems of that gatekeeper and allow these software applications or software application stores to be accessed by means other than the core platform services of that gatekeeper[4]

The practice is currently investigated in the Apple App Store case. The Commission considers that Apple does not let its competitors inform users about the possibility to buy their products on other platforms than the App store, at potential cheaper prices.[54][56]

(d) refrain from treating more favourably in ranking services and products offered by the gatekeeper itself or by any third party belonging to the same undertaking compared to similar services or products of third party and apply fair and non discriminatory conditions to such ranking[4]

This practice has already been prohibited in the case of Google Shopping and is currently investigated in the Amazon Buy Box case.[38] Mainly, it refers to self-preferencing own products at the expense of competitors in the search results of a certain marketplace.[65][66]

(e) refrain from technically restricting the ability of end users to switch between and subscribe to different software applications and services to be accessed using the operating system of the gatekeeper...[4]

This can be seen as deriving from the conflict between Spotify and Apple on the restrictions imposed to use Spotify on Apple devices, that had the purpose of promoting Apple music services.[67][5]

(f) allow business users and providers of ancillary services access to and interoperability with the same operating system, hardware or software features that are available or used in the provision by the gatekeeper of any ancillary services[4]

 
Interoperability: Application programming interface (API) allow to connect providers of ancillary services to the operating system, hardware or software of gatekeepers, they can enable interoperability as required by the DMA

This provision can be illustrated for example by practices currently analysed in the Apple Pay case. By favouring its devices and its own method of payment – Apple Pay – at the expense of its competitors, Apple is currently scrutinized by the commission.[68] Interoperability requirement is a key demand by civil society and the open source community.[69]

(g) provide advertisers and publishers, upon their request and free of charge, with access to the performance measuring tools of the gatekeeper and the information necessary for advertisers and publishers to carry out their own  independent verification of the ad inventory[4]

This article would help business users of platforms, especially advertisers, to have access to the data related to the ads and publications posted on the Gatekeeper's platforms. Facebook and Google are potentially the main targets of this article, and maybe Amazon.[5]

(h) provide effective portability of data generated through the activity of a business user or end user and shall, in particular, provide tools for end users to facilitate the exercise of data portability, in line with GDPR (Regulation EU 2016/679), including by the provision of continuous and real-time access[4]

The abovementioned provision has a more general scope and it is not built around specific cases. Seen as complementing the GDPR regulation, it gives more precision regarding the scope of data portability, by adding that the data access should be "continuous" and "real time". In practical terms, this guarantees both access to users (including business-users) and benefits in terms of up-to-date data portability generated by the platform.

(i) provide business users, or third parties authorised by a business user, free of charge, with effective, high-quality, continuous and real-time access and use of aggregated or non-aggregated data, that is provided for or generated in the context of the use of the relevant core platform services by those business users and the end users engaging with the products or services provided by those business users; for personal data, provide access and use only where directly connected with the use effectuated by the end user in respect of the products or services offered by the relevant business user through the relevant core platform service, and when the end user opts in to such sharing with a consent in the sense of the GDPR Regulation (EU) 2016/679;[4]

As article (h), this article does not derive from an individual case and complements the GDPR.[5] It guarantees more rights to business and end-users regarding the interoperability of the data generated on platforms.[5] This is meant to make data generated by different platforms compatible and usable by different systems.[70]

(j) provide to any third party providers of online search engines, upon their request, with access on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms to ranking, query, click and view data in relation to free and paid search generated by end users on online search engines of the gatekeeper, subject to anonymisation for the query, click and view data that constitutes personal data;[4]

This article is especially meant to ensure a higher degree of competition in the online search engines market, by providing more rights to the (new) competitors.[5] It gives providers of online search engines access to data generated by the Gatekeeper in the sector (presumably Google Search at the moment, as it concentrates 95% of the market share in this sector).[36] This is also related to the Google Search case and to Article 5(d) or the "blacklisted actions" of the DMA (see above).[5]

(k) apply fair and non-discriminatory general conditions of access for business users to its software application store ...[4]

This provision targets the store application of Gatekeepers (App Store, Google Play),[5] and has the aim to protect the rights of app developers and of business-users.

Other obligations for gatekeepers edit

  • Under Art. 12, Gatekeepers have to notify the Commission their intended future merger and acquisition.
  • Under Art. 3, Gatekeepers have to notify the Commission when they meet the thresholds to be considered as gatekeepers (see above the section related to the criteria).
  • Under Art. 13, when designated as gatekeepers, the firm has to conduct an independent audit about their profiling technique of consumers and submit it to the commission.

European Commission's investigation powers and sanctions mechanisms edit

The Digital Markets Act will allow the European Commission to have regulatory and market investigation powers. Under these circumstances, market investigations will be mainly designated to:[4]

  • Conduct markets investigation so as to specify the obligations imposed on Gatekeepers and monitor compliance (Art. 16)
  • Conduct markets investigation in order to designate gatekeepers (Art. 15)
  • Conduct market investigations to identify new services and practices that can be subject to the obligations listed in Art. 5 and Art. 6 (Art. 17)
  • Chapter V of the proposal gives the commission a certain number of rights in order to conduct these investigations
  • Sanctions for gatekeepers in case of non-compliance or systematic non-compliance are represented by fines up to 10% of the Gatekeeper's worldwide turnover.[49][4]

Relationship to national competition law enforcement edit

Art. 1(5) of the Digital Markets Act states that Member States are prohibited from imposing on gatekeepers further obligations by way of laws, regulations or administrative action for the purpose of ensuring contestable and fair markets. Obligations that are unrelated to the relevant undertakings having a status of gatekeeper within the meaning of the Digital Markets Act are exempted from this prohibition.[71]

On 22 March 2022, the European Court of Justice ruled in the joint cases C-117/20 Bpost and C-151/20 Nordzucker that investigators can start antitrust scrutiny of companies that have already been probed under sector regulation such as the Digital Markets Act, so long as the two cases are “conducted in a sufficiently coordinated manner within a proximate timeframe and the overall penalties imposed must correspond to the seriousness of the offenses committed.”[72][73]

This opens up a path for parallel national prosecution of gatekeepers, for example as Germany has done under the German competition law amendment Section 19a.[74] The German Federal Cartel Office has in 2021 opened multiple proceedings against large tech firms that would be considered gatekeepers under the Digital Markets Act, including Facebook (now: Meta),[75] Amazon,[76] Apple[77] and Google.[78][79] Section 19a cases may involve coordination among the German Federal Cartel Office and the European Commission and other national competition authorities. Legally, it has been proposed by the Federal Cartel Office that Section 19a must be seen as an expansion of competition law, meaning that it could be applied parallel to the Digital Markets Act. The trilogue negotiations on the Digital Markets Act have not yielded a common position on the matter.[80]

Identified gatekeepers edit

As of September 2023, the list of gatekeepers was revealed to be Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, ByteDance, Meta and Microsoft.[81][82]

The twenty-two core products listed as gatekeeping products were:

Alphabet edit

Alphabet Inc. is the parent company of Google. The tensions between Alphabet/Google and the European Union have been generated by sanctions applied to unfair practices related to advertising, mobile operating system, or shopping strategies. Several fines were imposed by the European Commission to Google because of breaches of competition law but taking into account that despite the CJEU's rulings, "inefficient market outcomes in terms of higher prices, lower quality, less choice and innovation" still emerged, the DMA aims to better regulate this area.

As the main focus of the Digital Markets Act is represented by operators that provide search engines, social networks, cloud computing services and operating systems, Google was one of the companies that officially presented its position.[83] In an interview, Google's President of Business and Operations for the EMEA region Matt Brittin stated that: "It's so important to get the rules right for European consumers to have more choice, to support the kind of jobs we'll need in the future and to support European businesses."[83]

Even though not specifically named, Google is one of the companies that will be affected by the stringent rules, because the legislation will be applied to firms with European revenues of at least €6.5 bn or at least 45 million users across Europe. Nevertheless, as subject to potential fines of up to 10% of its global revenue for breaking the rules,[84] Google is highly incentivized to continue influencing the legislators and lobbying in Brussels for obtaining better conditions under the Digital Market Act.

The rhetoric of Google and its attempts to contour an official position relied mainly on the risks that might emerge from the legislative act, namely barriers – "as Europeans will only have access to less choice and to more costly alternatives".[84] Nevertheless, the big tech has also tried to highlight the weaknesses of the Digital Market Act and they labelled it a blacklist – whose implications in terms of interoperability might not generate innovation in the future, but incentives for "lowest common denominator".[85]

In November 2020, the French news magazine Le Point published Google's leaked lobby strategy on the Digital Market Act, thus several practices and intentions have been uncovered.[83] For example, there were made references to:

  • Lobby at Parliament, Commission and member state level;
  • Re-frame the political narrative around costs to the economy and consumers;
  • Mobilise third parties (such as think-tanks and academics) to echo Google's message;
  • Mobilise the US Government;
  • Create "pushback" against Commissioner Breton (who was seen as supporting potential break ups)
  • Create conflict between Commission departments.[86][verification needed]

As far as the cost of these lobbying practices is concerned, according to the Transparency Register, Google spent more than €19 million euros on lobbying in the first half of 2020.[86] Even though the sum of money allocated by Google has already reached significant levels, the numbers presented above do not comprise all the transactions related to academic partnerships, law firms, or activities conducted in individual Member States.

Corporate Europe Observatory investigated the fight of EU tech regulation and according to its findings, 158 meetings were registered since the Von der Leyen Commission took office, meetings that "involved 103 organisations, mostly companies and lobby groups. Only 13 actors had at least 3 or more meetings logged on these issues. Google stands out with the most meetings with Microsoft and Facebook trailing close behind. Apple and Amazon have also lobbied on the DMA and/ or DSA, although they rank lower overall with two and one meeting respectively".[86] However, one of the limitations faced is represented by the fact that the endeavours with the officials responsible for drafting the legislation are not mentioned, as only the official meetings with high representatives are declared or announced.[86]

Despite the fact that the proposal has been published on 15 December 2020, the lobbying practices still represent an ongoing process because they have been transferred from the commission to the European Parliament and Council. However, comparing the data obtained on the meetings of the European Commission with the information made available by the other institutions, it can be observed that transparency is even less stringent.

In October 2023 the German cartel office said Alphabet unit Google had agreed to change its user data practices to end a German antitrust investigation aimed at curbing its data-driven market power.[87]

Alphabet responded by:[88]

  • Creating the Data Portability API, an API that allows to transfer content of Chrome browser, Google Maps, Play Store, Google Search, Google Shopping, and YouTube to another service, but is only available in all EEA countries only, and the United Kingdom
  • Added additional data for EEA advertisers.
  • Launching a program to have external payment in Google Play Store.
  • Android 14 supports seamless updating on third-party app stores worldwide.
  • Added a settings panel to unlink data between most Google services.
  • Added EU choice screens to Android, which are randomly ordered
  • Added dedicated chips to link to external services for flights and other stuff

Amazon edit

Amazon welcomed the DMA and according to its position,[citation needed] the company has not been as concerned about it as the other GAFAM members.[citation needed] This can be explained by the fact that compared to Google's and Apple's case, the Digital Markets Act could affect Amazon only in three aspects:[original research?]

  • Amazon might be obliged to allow business users to offer the same products or services to end-users at prices or conditions that are different from those offered by Amazon (DMA Article 5b)
  • Amazon might be obliged not to use data from competitors that is not public (DMA Article 6a)
  • Amazon might be obliged not to treat the services and the products it offers more favourably (DMA Article 6d)

The prohibition on using non-public data from competitors it hosts on its platform and the prohibition on ranking its product before the ones offered by competitors may impact Amazon if the proposal for the DMA is adopted under its current form. Moreover, these aspects caused Amazon to negotiate the final version of the regulation, taking into account that it spent €1.75 million on lobbying practices and that it became a member of several think tanks.[89]

Apple edit

The new European draft legislation has also targeted Apple's App Store with regard to its practices and preinstalled applications. One of the main changes that will be brought to their current business model is represented by the removal of the "self-preferencing" strategy.[90] As a result of the proposal on the Digital Markets Act, Apple would be forced to change the manner in which its apps are displayed in the App Store searches, so as to give the chance to smaller developers to have their software downloaded by consumers. Moreover, Apple will have to allow its customers to uninstall preloaded first-party apps from the devices procured. Thus, both Google and Apple will be constrained and their practices more regulated. According to the DMA final proposal, these big tech companies will be compelled to share performance metrics for free with advertisers and publishers.[90]

Before the official release of the DMA proposal, some companies – including Apple – tried to change their behaviour, taking into account the reactions generated by the commission's intent to regulate the digital market. As far as Apple is concerned, in October, a group of French publishers – led by italicno (APIG) – highlighted its concern with regard to the App Store's terms of service. For example, one of their requirements was related to the economic dependence on Apple – "Content publishers are in a situation of absolute economic dependence on Apple for the distribution of their content on the iPhone, since the only store available on this device is the AppStore". In addition, Apple was criticised for the 30% commission on sales that it makes through apps on the platform, thus the APIG showed its concern vis a vis the further concentration on the market.[91] The reaction of Apple to these allegations was focused especially on a reduction of its commission rate to 15% for app developers with less than $1 million in annual net sales, but this did not impede the European Commission to continue advocating for the Digital Markets Act.[92]

Similar to Google's case, Apple also seeks to limit the influence of the commission and to escape the definition of gatekeeper, so as not to become subject to further obligations. However, as Brussels still wants to outlaw gatekeepers' ability to ban others from accessing their marketplaces, firms like Spotify and Facebook – that believe Apple has set unfair conditions on those companies' apps within App Store, seem to support the commission's proposal.[93]

The strategy of Apple to limit the influence of the DMA is not as clear or well-structured as in Google's case. However, there can be observed some practices engaged in by the company to ensure that its objectives are taken into account by the European officials. According to a research conducted by the Corporate Europe Observatory,[94] it seems that Apple, Google, and Facebook used to work with several associations that declared themselves independent, without disclosing their linkages. For example, the Center for European Reform has featured on its website a list of its corporate donors – one of them being Apple – but Apple does not specify this information on the Transparency Register entry.[94] Under these circumstances, it can be observed the network created around interests' groups, companies, NGOs and think tanks, as all of them seek to shape the legislative process in Brussels in their favour.

When it comes to lobby spending, despite the limited and incomplete information, it can be observed that Apple is in the top 30 individual corporate lobby spenders in Brussels, at numbers 16 (with over €2 million). In comparison with Google, that has allocated a budget of €8 million, Apple still invests a considerable sum of money on access to European officials, so as to present its demands.[94]

ByteDance edit

ByteDance is the one non-American company on the list of Gatekeepers. Its major service offering is the video hosting social network TikTok.

ByteDance responded by launching a Data Portability API for EEA users, later to provide "increased access" to the API, improving the Download Your Data tool's speed and adding the ability to partially export TikTok data by allowing selections of categories to export. A webform for future DMA compliance was created.[95]

Meta edit

Considering that the Digital Markets Act aims to limit the influence of large companies by allowing alternative players to emerge, Meta has also been targeted by the legislative proposal. As in the other companies' cases, once the DMA is adopted, unfair practices will be highly discouraged and even prohibited, so as to stop the harm they bring to competition.

However, apart from Google, Apple, and Amazon, Meta seems to support the EU rules that have been published last year.[timeframe?] In its official declarations, Meta claimed that it hopes that the European Union will set boundaries for Apple. Nevertheless, in this context there were not observed solely tensions between the Commission and the Big Tech companies, but even between GAFAM, taking into account their statements and the objectives they advocate for.

The controversies between Meta and Apple started with the privacy feature used by Apple, that allows consumers to block advertisers from tracking them across different applications. Thus, Meta, a company that earns revenue from advertising, began to retaliate and showed its discontent. It has also added that "Apple controls an entire ecosystem from device to app store and apps, and uses this power to harm developers and consumers, as well as large platforms like Facebook".[96] The reaction of Apple was quite harsh and accused Meta of "invasive tracking".[96] Therefore, the discussions around the Digital Markets Act started to create more tensions between Big Tech firms and to deviate from the scope of the proposal, as the companies focused on criticising their "competitors" of illegal practices.[97]

Microsoft edit

Microsoft was identified as gatekeeper. The consultant Cristina Caffarra and professor Fiona Scott Morton presented the view that the only obligation that might affect Microsoft under the DMA was to enable end-users to delete any software applications pre-installed.[5] It is unclear whether Scott Morton was consulting already for Microsoft at the time of making such statements, her consulting work for Microsoft became known during the Fiona Scott Morton affair.[98]

Microsoft complied by allowing worldwide users to uninstall Camera, Photos, and Cortana, and EEA users to uninstall Bing Web Search and Microsoft Edge. APIs for custom search engines and widget feeds were created for EEA exclusive users. EEA users will also be prompted about syncing a PC's data to Microsoft.[99] A registry hack was shortly created to get these changes without living in an EEA country or having to move to an EEA country.[100] EEA users are no longer advertised about Microsoft Edge.

Non-Gatekeeper firms edit

Airbnb and Booking.com edit

Due to their important positions on the short-term accommodation market, Airbnb and Booking.com became potential targets for the legislation. Indeed, above 50% of the homes designated for ‘short-terms stay’ are listed on AirBnB, and approximatively 1⁄3 on Booking.com.[101] Therefore, their possible labelling as gatekeepers has been long debated, leading the companies to defend themselves and explain why they should not be considered included in this category.[102][103][104] Moreover, Booking.com insisted on the fact that it is one of the only European companies that is a global success and that as they are not the most dominant actor in this sector, they should not be disincentivized while competing with bigger companies.[104]

Spotify edit

With approximately 1⁄3 of the market share in 2020[105] in the music subscription market, Spotify is by far the dominant actor in this sector as Apple Music comes in second position, with around 15% of market share.[105] However, Spotify does not seem to meet the criteria set by the European Commission, according to the analysis of Vox EU.[5] Dirk Auer, an economist of the American think tank ICLE, qualified this piece of legislation as a way to protect the European firms, and that the criteria are on purpose excluding major European tech firms, notably Spotify.[106] Even if it is true that SAP would probably be the only European firm targeted by the legal act,[5] there are also American big platforms like Twitter or Uber not targeted by the legislation, despite their important market position.[5]

Samsung edit

Although Samsung had appeared earlier on a list of possible gatekeepers,[107] it was not on the final list.

Reaction within the European Union edit

France edit

The French Government expressed its ambition for imposing stricter enforcement on competition rules, so as to prevent giant tech firms favouring their own services, ousting rivals or maintaining their dominant positions.[108][109]

Nevertheless, France would like to rely on the possibility of adapting the rules, through the Digital Markets Act, in order to respond to the constant changes of the digital market.[110]  

The French government is known to be publicly in favour of more regulation of the GAFAM[111] and unilaterally set up its "GAFA tax [fr]" in 2019.[112] This tax was the source of tensions with the Trump administration.[113]

Germany edit

The German federal government welcomed the proposal on the Digital Markets Act. They consider that the current European legal framework is not sufficiently strong and that the enforcement measures must also be strengthened with respect to digital platforms.[114][110] However, the main concern of Germany still remains the preservation of small and medium-sized companies, as it intends to keep them out of the scope of the new rules.[114]

The head of the German Federal Cartel Office, Andreas Mundt, has on several occasions criticised the European Commission's centralised approach to regulating gatekeepers.[115] He has called the European Commission's veto right over national competition authorities’ powers to impose decisions against Big Tech "unacceptable", and has asked for more powers to be given to national competition authorities.[116] This position was echoed by other Member States.[117][118]

Netherlands edit

In October 2020, the Dutch Government jointly with France and Belgium, expressed their willingness for a stricter enforcement of the competition rules, in order to avoid abuse of dominance and anti-competitive practices.[109]

On 17 February 2021, the Dutch Government published its official position on the Digital Markets Act[119] and welcomed the initiative, taking into account that the objectives it comprises are aligned with their national position.

Ireland edit

The Irish government published its position on 8 September 2020, during the public consultations held for the Digital Services Act Package.[120] According to their statements, Irish authorities are not willing to assess the definition of "gatekeepers", as they explained that the occupation of a dominant position is not illegal. Moreover, they have also stressed that this particular aspect does not imply a diminution of consumer welfare and does not prevent innovation or new entrances in the digital market.[120]

Many of the companies that are likely to be targeted by the DMA have their headquarters in Ireland.[121][122] The approach of the Irish Government towards Big Tech companies has often been the source of debates within the European Union.[123][121] In 2016, the European Commission accused Ireland of granting Apple "illegal tax benefits".[124] The General Court ruled in favour of Apple, but the Commission expressed its intention to appeal the ruling to the European Court of Justice.[125]

Rest of the world's position edit

As with other pieces of complex legislation (the 'Brussels effect'), other countries have taken steps to copy the DMA.[126]

Brazil edit

Draft legislation has been launched to implement a regulatory framework inspired by the European Union's Digital Markets Act.[127][126]

India edit

The Indian government is considering a DMA-styled regulatory approach to apply to “systemically important digital intermediaries. However, as of April 2024 no concrete proposals were done.[126]

Japan edit

Japan is reworking its competition laws and regulations in order to more close resemble the regulatory structure of the European Union.[128]

South Korea edit

The "Promotion of Platform competition" is modeled on the DMA,[126] but is currently delayed.

United Kingdom edit

The Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Bill is being debated and review by Parliament.[1]

United States edit

The gatekeepers designated under the Digital Markets Act mostly include American "Big Tech" companies (Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple, Microsoft).

This legislation comes in a context where the EU and the US, under the Biden administration, want to rebuild better relations after the tensions that emerged during the Trump presidency.[129] The European Commission has stressed the need for cooperation between the EU and the US in dealing with the dominant positions of online platforms and big tech which they consider harmful.[4] In January 2021, the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, stated that the current president of the United States, Joe Biden, and the European Union share the same position regarding the regulation of tech companies.[130] In a speech at the Munich Security Conference in February 2021 she invited the United States to join the European Union in its initiatives in order to create rules in the digital Economy that can be "valid worldwide".[131]

Even if the official position of the Biden administration on the Digital Markets Act is not yet publicly known, the same debates about the dominant position of some digital tech platforms are rising in the United States.[132][133][134] An antitrust lawsuit was opened in December 2020 against Facebook by the US Federal Trade Commission and 46 American states for abusing its dominant position and exercising anti-competitive conduct for several years.[135][136][137][138]

In a document published in March 2021, the Congressional Research Service, an American government think tank that informs the members of the US Congress, outlined the fact that the new digital regulations led by the European Union, including the Digital Markets Act, could be sources of potential future cooperation between the EU and the United States, while stressing the potential impact on the US economy.[139]

See also edit

References edit

Footnotes

  1. ^ The European Commission uses the term Number Independent Interpersonal Communications Services (NIICS, sometimes stylized NI-ICS)[140] to refer to communications services that can operate without a "publicly assigned numbering resource";[141] an example of such a resource is a telephone number. NIICS include services such as Telegram, WhatsApp, Signal, iMessage, and the Messenger service provided by Facebook. Common communications services for NIICS include instant messaging (IM), including group-messaging, as well as calling services, including video-conferencing.[142]

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External links edit

  • European Commission: The Digital Markets Act
  • Regulation (EU) 2022/1925 of 14 September 2022 on contestable and fair markets in the digital sector on EUR-Lex
  • Procedure 2020/0374(COD) on ŒIL

April 26, 2024
digital, markets, regulation, 2022, 2022, 1925, regulation, that, aims, make, digital, economy, fairer, more, contestable, regulation, entered, into, force, november, 2022, became, applicable, most, part, 2023, regulation, 2022, 1925european, union, regulation. Digital Markets Act Regulation 2022 EU 2022 1925 DMA is an EU regulation that aims to make the digital economy fairer and more contestable The regulation entered into force on 1 November 2022 and became applicable for the most part on 2 May 2023 1 2 Regulation EU 2022 1925European Union regulationText with EEA relevanceTitleRegulation on contestable and fair markets in the digital sectorMade byEuropean Parliament and Council of the European UnionMade underArticle 114 of the TFEUJournal referenceOJ L 265 12 10 2022 p 1 66HistoryEuropean Parliament vote5 July 2022Council Vote18 July 2022Date made14 September 2022Preparative textsCommission proposalCOM nce again 2020 842 finalOther legislationAmendsDirective EU 2019 1937 Directive EU 2020 1828Current legislation The DMA aims at ensuring a higher degree of competition in European digital markets by preventing large companies from abusing their market power and by allowing new players to enter the market 3 This regulation targets the largest digital platforms operating in the European Union They are also known as gatekeepers due to the durable market position in some digital sectors and because they also meet certain criteria related to the number of users their turnovers or capitalisation 4 5 6 Twenty two services across six companies deemed gatekeepers Alphabet Amazon Apple ByteDance Meta and Microsoft were identified as core platform services by the EU in September 2023 7 These companies had until 6 March 2024 to comply with all of the Act s provisions 8 The list of obligations includes prohibitions on combining data collected from two different services belonging to the same company e g in the case of Meta its social network Facebook and its communication platform WhatsApp 9 provisions for the protection of platforms business users including advertisers and publishers legal instruments against the self preferencing methods used by platforms for promoting their own products e g preferential results for Google s products or services when using Google Search 10 provisions concerning the pre installation of some services e g Android 11 provisions related to bundling practices and provisions for ensuring interoperability portability and access to data for businesses and end users of platforms 5 Non compliance may lead to sanctions including fines of up to 10 of the worldwide turnover 5 6 According to the European Commission the main objective of this regulation is to regulate the behaviour of the so called Big Tech firms within the European Single Market and beyond 12 The Commission aims to guarantee a fair level of competition level playing field 12 on the highly concentrated digital European markets which are often characterised by a winner takes all configuration 6 The DMA covers eight different sectors which it refers to as Core Platforms Services CPS Due to the presence of gatekeepers who to a certain degree affect the market contestability the CPS are considered problematic by the European Commission online search engines e g Google Search online intermediation services e g Google Play Store Apple s App Store social networks e g Facebook video sharing platforms e g YouTube communication platforms e g WhatsApp Gmail advertising services e g Google Ads operating systems e g Android iOS cloud services e g Amazon Web Services 4 In April 2024 Reuters reported on data from six companies which showed that in the first month after the regulations were implemented independent browsers had seen a spike in users Cyprus based Aloha Browser said users in the EU jumped 250 in March Norway s Vivaldi Germany s Ecosia and U S based Brave have also seen user numbers rise following the new regulation 13 Contents 1 Background 1 1 EU Competition policy rules 1 2 Digital policy in the EU 2 Legislative procedure 3 Objective of the DMA 3 1 Rationale 4 The DMA rules 4 1 General framework 4 2 Criteria defining Gatekeepers 4 3 Sectors concerned Core Platforms Services 4 4 Obligations of gatekeepers 4 4 1 Forbidden actions 4 4 2 Case by case assessment 4 5 Other obligations for gatekeepers 4 6 European Commission s investigation powers and sanctions mechanisms 4 7 Relationship to national competition law enforcement 5 Identified gatekeepers 5 1 Alphabet 5 2 Amazon 5 3 Apple 5 4 ByteDance 5 5 Meta 5 6 Microsoft 6 Non Gatekeeper firms 6 1 Airbnb and Booking com 6 2 Spotify 6 3 Samsung 7 Reaction within the European Union 7 1 France 7 2 Germany 7 3 Netherlands 7 4 Ireland 8 Rest of the world s position 8 1 Brazil 8 2 India 8 3 Japan 8 4 South Korea 8 5 United Kingdom 8 6 United States 9 See also 10 References 11 External linksBackground editEU Competition policy rules edit The present rules applied within the European Union with regard to digital markets are derived from European and national legislation Under these circumstances the basis for competition rules in the EU is established by Articles 101 and 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union TFEU Article 101 addresses anti competitive agreements and concerted practices that may affect trade between members states or reduce competition in the common market Article 102 aims to tackle the abuse of dominant positions 14 All players operating in the common market are therefore subject to these provisions European and national authorities have identified the need to strengthen the current legislation given the structural problems that are not covered 15 Digital policy in the EU edit The Digital Markets Act is in line with the legislative developments undertaken by the Juncker Commission between 2014 and 2019 One of the most important pieces of EU digital legislation is represented by the EU copyright rules This has led to the protection payment and recognition of workers in thirty three sectors and it aims to reward creativity stimulate investment in the creative sector 16 Another relevant achievement can be considered the implementation of the General Data Protection Regulation GDPR in 2016 17 This regulation sets out the new European framework for the use and circulation of personal data and has a significant impact on the major digital players 18 In addition the regulation on platform to business trading practices P2B has been established to create a fair transparent and predictable business environment for smaller businesses and traders on online platforms This regulation has applied in July 2020 and prevents market distortion encourages healthy competition and prohibits unfair practices 19 Legislative procedure editThe Digital Markets Act proposal was submitted by the European Commission to the European Parliament and to the Council of the European Union on 15 December 2020 Along with the Digital Services Act DSA 20 the DMA is part of the Commission s European Digital Strategy entitled Shaping Europe s Digital Future 12 The proposals were presented by the Executive Vice President of the European Commission for A Europe Fit for the Digital Age Margrethe Vestager and by the European Commissioner for Internal Market Thierry Breton as members of the Von der Leyen Commission 12 On 23 November 2021 the Parliament s Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection IMCO adopted its position on the DMA proposal and the text was adopted in plenary session of the European Parliament on 15 December 2021 21 The approved text became the Parliament s mandate for negotiations with the Council which started under the French presidency of the Council in the first half of 2022 22 On 25 November 2021 the Council agreed its negotiating position providing the Presidency with a mandate for the discussions 23 On 24 March 2022 the Parliament and the Council meeting in the trilogue format together with the Commission reached a political agreement on the DMA 24 25 26 The negotiators reached a consensus on the interoperability provisions for large messaging platforms the said obligations will make it possible for users to communicate between different platforms giving them more choice against the increasing dominance of certain companies 27 The choice is expanded also through provisions that guarantee users free choice as regards browsers virtual assistants or search engines while no interoperability obligation for social networks has been decided upon yet 27 In the political agreement platforms with a market capitalization of 75 billion or turnover in the European Economic Area equal to or above 7 5 billion have been included in the rules scope 28 An agreement was reached for penalties which will be amounting from 10 of annual worldwide turnover due to non compliance for first infringements up to 20 in the case of repeated infringements 28 The text of the DMA provisionally agreed in March 2022 was made publicly available by the European institutions only on 22 May 2022 29 The DMA was formally adopted by the Parliament on 5 July 2022 30 and by the Council on 19 July 2022 31 and it was signed into law on 14 September 2022 by Presidents of the Parliament and the Council which concluded the legislative procedure 32 The adopted text was published in the Official Journal of the European Union on 12 October 2022 setting it to come into force twenty days after the publication on 1 November 2022 2 The 2 May 2023 6 months later the regulation started applying and the potential gatekeepers had 2 months to report to the commission to be identified as gatekeepers This process would take up to 45 days and after being identified as gatekeepers they would have 6 months to come into compliance at the latest the 6 March 2024 8 33 From 7 March 2024 gatekeepers must comply with the DMA 34 Objective of the DMA editThe DMA specifically targets Big Tech companies 20 The DMA proposed to classify certain platforms according to their number of users capitalisation market power or turnover probably including Apple Google Facebook and Amazon as Gatekeepers making them subject to new obligations 35 nbsp The DMA is a response to concerns about the market power of Big Tech It aims at preventing large companies from abusing their market power and to allow smaller and new players to enter the market 3 Rationale edit In December 2020 the European Commission released a legislative proposal that intends to protect consumer welfare and to restore a level playing field in the European Union s digital market 6 At the moment the economy is being driven to a large extent by the activities conducted through online platforms A small number of online platforms have come to play a crucial role in the lives of millions of individuals and companies They intermediate a significant portion of transactions between consumers and businesses leading to extreme dependencies of many businesses on these important platforms 36 In the table below it can be observed that EU digital markets face a high level of concentration with companies such as Google or Facebook controlling almost the entirety of a specific market segment 36 Sectors Dominant company Share of the EU market 36 Desktop OS Microsoft Windows 78 Web browsers Google Chrome 60 Search Google Search 95 Social media Facebook 90 E commerce Amazon 30 share of users and 60 in terms of market revenues Travel booking Booking com 35 Video streaming Netflix Amazon Prime Video HBO Sky and Dazn 90 of the market revenues Audio streaming Spotify Apple Music and Amazon Music 55 25 Mobile OS global market 37 Google Android Apple iOS 72 27 The term gatekeeper refers to the ability of intermediary platforms to act as the main bottleneck to a large number of market participants that are not reachable elsewhere Behind this development are market forces that encompass 1 important economies of scale on the supply side 2 strong direct and indirect network effects on the demand side 3 data driven competitive advantage 4 high rate of innovation and 5 development of conglomerates that structure entire ecosystems 38 In addition the combination of these elements can lead to market dynamics that follow the winner takes most scenarios 6 During the last years serious concerns have been expressed by authorities across the world with regard to the economic power of some digital giants In Europe the European Commission backed by years of enforcement experience in EU competition law 5 has pointed out that a part of those intermediary platforms may be considered Gatekeeper or structuring platforms in their respective market segments 36 Moreover it has also expressed the concern that Big Tech companies might unlawfully take advantage of their market and bargaining powers in order to lock in dominant positions i e in the existing markets to increase their level of influence and to obtain leading positions in new sectors of activity Hence this can be interpreted as providing unfair advantages to the incumbents present in core and ancillary services as distorting the competition and as harming the consumers in the long run through either increased prices or reduced options 36 Under EU competition law reaching a dominant position is by no mean considered illegal nor is the idea of a winner takes most scenario However practices that lock in dominant positions or that impose unfair conditions terms to third parties might be treated as unlawful 6 The DMA rules editGeneral framework edit The Digital Markets Act sets up a list of conducts that should be outlawed on the one hand and obligations that platforms identified as gatekeepers should respect on the other hand The list is divided in two different parts the general blacklisted actions Article 5 and the case by case assessment that needs to be specified Article 6 Criteria defining Gatekeepers edit The DMA combines quantitative and qualitative criteria in the process of designating gatekeepers There are three criteria in the legislation 39 Criteria relating to the size of the companies a a turnover of the company of at least 7 5 billion euro in the European Economic Area for three years at least or b a market capitalization or equivalent of at least 75 billion euro Criteria relating to the place of the company in controlling access of other businesses to final customers the company needs to have a more than 45 million monthly active end users in the EU and b more than 10 000 yearly active business in the EU An entrenched durable position which is a qualitative criterion which the regulator considers met if the numbers of active users in the second criterion are met for three years in a row Sectors concerned Core Platforms Services edit The DMA covers eight different sectors also known as Core Platforms Services CPS The European Commission considers them problematic because the Gatekeepers presence prevents market contestability to a certain extent 4 36 As of September 2023 the designated Gatekeepers and their services are 40 Online advertising Browser Intermediation Communication a Operating system Search engine Social network Video sharing Alphabet Google Chrome Google Maps Google Play Google Shopping Android Google Search YouTube Amazon Amazon Amazon Marketplace Apple Safari App Store iOS ByteDance TikTok Meta Meta Meta Marketplace WhatsApp Messenger Facebook Instagram Microsoft Windows LinkedIn Apple s iPadOS is excluded from the list but is currently under investigation to see if it constitutes a gateway for business users despite not meeting the quantitative thresholds 41 Other services that were under investigation include Microsoft s Bing Edge and Microsoft Advertising and Apple s iMessage 40 On February 13 2024 the European Commission announced their decision that Bing Edge Microsoft Advertising and iMessage don t qualify as gatekeeper services 42 The European Commission didn t go into detail on their decision other than stating that it was the result of a thorough assessment of all arguments taking into account input by relevant stakeholders and after hearing the Digital Markets Advisory Committee 42 Despite the lack of detail provided by the European Commission on their decision multiple outlets speculated that the decision was based on the services not meeting the threshold necessary to be classified as a gatekeeper service This speculation was based in part on an article by the Financial Times from September 2023 that reported that both Microsoft and Apple made appeals on the grounds that there wasn t a big enough user base in Europe for the services under review The Financial Times received this information from two sources with direct knowledge on the matter 43 44 45 46 47 Obligations of gatekeepers edit This section contains too many or overly lengthy quotations Please help summarize the quotations Consider transferring direct quotations to Wikiquote or excerpts to Wikisource April 2022 It may prevent practices known as self preferencing 3 applied by companies like Google for better displaying their products among the results of Google search Gatekeeper companies could also be prohibited from reusing people s personal data For example Facebook could be forbidden from using the data obtained from its subsidiary WhatsApp 48 The proposal ensures rights to the platform s business users 5 For example it could prohibit Apple from imposing a 30 commission on all the transactions concluded via App Store Gatekeepers platforms may also be prohibited from requiring business users to offer their best deals on the platform for example Amazon required e book publishers to apply their best conditions on the Amazon e book marketplace 5 There are also device neutrality rules regarding the rights to delete pre installed applications as in the case of Apple iOS or Google Android for example and to install apps from other sources 5 Protection rights for business users of platforms including advertisers and publishers 5 Prohibition of some bundling practices 5 Provisions for ensuring a higher degree of data portability interoperability and access to data for the platform s business and end users 5 Companies that do not comply with the new obligations may risk fines up to 10 on their worldwide turnover 49 The two following sections detail each rule individually and mention when it is the case the concrete example that determined the commission to include them Forbidden actions edit This list comprises seven obligations and prohibitions for addressing the unfair trading practices All the identified gatekeepers will have to respect these provisions 4 a Prevents Gatekeepers to combine personal data coming from Core Platforms Services CPS with data collected through other services of the same Gatekeepers or from a third party Also it prevents end users being signed in to other services offered by the Gatekeepers However this can be done only if the choice has been presented to the end user and consent given 4 38 Combining personal data from different sources was ruled illegal by the German Federal Cartel Office in 2019 in a case against Facebook 5 The company was also fined 110 million in May 2017 for notifying the Commission that it would not be possible to combine data coming from Facebook and WhatsApp at the time of the acquisition of WhatsApp in 2014 However the Commission found that this practice constituted a possibility since 2014 given the fact that WhatsApp inserted this option in its terms of services privacy policy in 2016 9 50 b allow business users to offer the same products or services to end users through third party online intermediation services at prices or conditions that are different from those offered through the online intermediation services of the Gatekeeper 4 This has already been considered illegal in a competition law case concerning Amazon e books In its contracts with the publishers of E books Amazon required them to offer at least the best price or conditions that they proposed to any other competitors 51 52 This article also derives from the cases concerning online travel agencies such as Booking com or Expedia 5 53 c allow business users to promote offers to end users acquired via the core platform service and to conclude contracts with these end users regardless of whether for that purpose they use the core platform services of the gatekeeper or not allow end users to access and use through the core platform services of the gatekeeper content subscriptions features or other items by using the software application of a business user where these items have been acquired by the end users from the relevant business user without using the core platform services of the gatekeeper 4 The legal character of this kind of practices is currently investigated by the European Commission in a case concerning the App Store of Apple and the 30 commission that they charged to all the subscriptions made through the App Store 54 55 56 d refrain from preventing or restricting business users from raising issues with any relevant public authority relating to any practice of gatekeepers 4 This is a general practice that does not come from the case law but it guarantees the right of business users to raise possible concerns to public authorities such as the European Commission 5 e refrain from requiring business users to use offer or interoperate with an identification service of the gatekeeper in the context of services offered by the business users using the core platform services of that gatekeeper 4 Also known as a bundling practice it prevents gatekeepers from forcing business users to use the ID of the Core Platform Services when they offer their services Thus it is often related to advertisers or publishers issues such as Google and their methods of collecting data 57 58 5 f Prevents the bundling of different CPSs of the platform that are identified as gatekeeper 4 For this bundling practice in 2018 Google was fined with 4 3 billion by the Commission in a decision on Android 10 The company breached the antitrust rules of the EU by forcing Android s users to pre install its own services such as Google search and Google Chrome 11 59 60 This way Google secured its dominant position in terms of internet search 10 g provide advertisers and publishers to which it supplies advertising services upon their request with information concerning the price paid by the advertiser and publisher as well as the amount or remuneration paid to the publisher for the publishing of a given ad and for each of the relevant advertising services provided by the gatekeeper This last obligation is linked to the investigation of the European Commission on Google s data and advertising practices 57 61 5 Case by case assessment edit Article 6 of the DMA contains a second list of eleven obligations and prohibitions for gatekeepers These obligations are specified individually by the European Commission after consulting the gatekeepers concerned a refrain from using in competition with business users any data not publicly available which is generated through activities by those business users including by the end users of these business users of its core platform services or provided by those business users of its core platform services or by the end users of these business users 4 The potential ban of this practice derives from the Amazon Marketplace case that is under investigation by the European Commission 62 The Commission claimed that Amazon breached antitrust rules by using non public data from their business users in order to compete with them 63 62 b To guarantee the possibility for end users to uninstall pre installed applications on its CPS 4 This obligation derives from the cases on Microsoft Internet Explorer and Google Android where the European Commission forced them to allow end users to uninstall pre installed app from their core platforms services 5 64 10 c allow the installation and effective use of third party software applications or software application stores using or interoperating with operating systems of that gatekeeper and allow these software applications or software application stores to be accessed by means other than the core platform services of that gatekeeper 4 The practice is currently investigated in the Apple App Store case The Commission considers that Apple does not let its competitors inform users about the possibility to buy their products on other platforms than the App store at potential cheaper prices 54 56 d refrain from treating more favourably in ranking services and products offered by the gatekeeper itself or by any third party belonging to the same undertaking compared to similar services or products of third party and apply fair and non discriminatory conditions to such ranking 4 This practice has already been prohibited in the case of Google Shopping and is currently investigated in the Amazon Buy Box case 38 Mainly it refers to self preferencing own products at the expense of competitors in the search results of a certain marketplace 65 66 e refrain from technically restricting the ability of end users to switch between and subscribe to different software applications and services to be accessed using the operating system of the gatekeeper 4 This can be seen as deriving from the conflict between Spotify and Apple on the restrictions imposed to use Spotify on Apple devices that had the purpose of promoting Apple music services 67 5 f allow business users and providers of ancillary services access to and interoperability with the same operating system hardware or software features that are available or used in the provision by the gatekeeper of any ancillary services 4 nbsp Interoperability Application programming interface API allow to connect providers of ancillary services to the operating system hardware or software of gatekeepers they can enable interoperability as required by the DMA This provision can be illustrated for example by practices currently analysed in the Apple Pay case By favouring its devices and its own method of payment Apple Pay at the expense of its competitors Apple is currently scrutinized by the commission 68 Interoperability requirement is a key demand by civil society and the open source community 69 g provide advertisers and publishers upon their request and free of charge with access to the performance measuring tools of the gatekeeper and the information necessary for advertisers and publishers to carry out their own independent verification of the ad inventory 4 This article would help business users of platforms especially advertisers to have access to the data related to the ads and publications posted on the Gatekeeper s platforms Facebook and Google are potentially the main targets of this article and maybe Amazon 5 h provide effective portability of data generated through the activity of a business user or end user and shall in particular provide tools for end users to facilitate the exercise of data portability in line with GDPR Regulation EU 2016 679 including by the provision of continuous and real time access 4 The abovementioned provision has a more general scope and it is not built around specific cases Seen as complementing the GDPR regulation it gives more precision regarding the scope of data portability by adding that the data access should be continuous and real time In practical terms this guarantees both access to users including business users and benefits in terms of up to date data portability generated by the platform i provide business users or third parties authorised by a business user free of charge with effective high quality continuous and real time access and use of aggregated or non aggregated data that is provided for or generated in the context of the use of the relevant core platform services by those business users and the end users engaging with the products or services provided by those business users for personal data provide access and use only where directly connected with the use effectuated by the end user in respect of the products or services offered by the relevant business user through the relevant core platform service and when the end user opts in to such sharing with a consent in the sense of the GDPR Regulation EU 2016 679 4 As article h this article does not derive from an individual case and complements the GDPR 5 It guarantees more rights to business and end users regarding the interoperability of the data generated on platforms 5 This is meant to make data generated by different platforms compatible and usable by different systems 70 j provide to any third party providers of online search engines upon their request with access on fair reasonable and non discriminatory terms to ranking query click and view data in relation to free and paid search generated by end users on online search engines of the gatekeeper subject to anonymisation for the query click and view data that constitutes personal data 4 This article is especially meant to ensure a higher degree of competition in the online search engines market by providing more rights to the new competitors 5 It gives providers of online search engines access to data generated by the Gatekeeper in the sector presumably Google Search at the moment as it concentrates 95 of the market share in this sector 36 This is also related to the Google Search case and to Article 5 d or the blacklisted actions of the DMA see above 5 k apply fair and non discriminatory general conditions of access for business users to its software application store 4 This provision targets the store application of Gatekeepers App Store Google Play 5 and has the aim to protect the rights of app developers and of business users Other obligations for gatekeepers edit Under Art 12 Gatekeepers have to notify the Commission their intended future merger and acquisition Under Art 3 Gatekeepers have to notify the Commission when they meet the thresholds to be considered as gatekeepers see above the section related to the criteria Under Art 13 when designated as gatekeepers the firm has to conduct an independent audit about their profiling technique of consumers and submit it to the commission European Commission s investigation powers and sanctions mechanisms edit The Digital Markets Act will allow the European Commission to have regulatory and market investigation powers Under these circumstances market investigations will be mainly designated to 4 Conduct markets investigation so as to specify the obligations imposed on Gatekeepers and monitor compliance Art 16 Conduct markets investigation in order to designate gatekeepers Art 15 Conduct market investigations to identify new services and practices that can be subject to the obligations listed in Art 5 and Art 6 Art 17 Chapter V of the proposal gives the commission a certain number of rights in order to conduct these investigations Sanctions for gatekeepers in case of non compliance or systematic non compliance are represented by fines up to 10 of the Gatekeeper s worldwide turnover 49 4 Relationship to national competition law enforcement edit Art 1 5 of the Digital Markets Act states that Member States are prohibited from imposing on gatekeepers further obligations by way of laws regulations or administrative action for the purpose of ensuring contestable and fair markets Obligations that are unrelated to the relevant undertakings having a status of gatekeeper within the meaning of the Digital Markets Act are exempted from this prohibition 71 On 22 March 2022 the European Court of Justice ruled in the joint cases C 117 20 Bpost and C 151 20 Nordzucker that investigators can start antitrust scrutiny of companies that have already been probed under sector regulation such as the Digital Markets Act so long as the two cases are conducted in a sufficiently coordinated manner within a proximate timeframe and the overall penalties imposed must correspond to the seriousness of the offenses committed 72 73 This opens up a path for parallel national prosecution of gatekeepers for example as Germany has done under the German competition law amendment Section 19a 74 The German Federal Cartel Office has in 2021 opened multiple proceedings against large tech firms that would be considered gatekeepers under the Digital Markets Act including Facebook now Meta 75 Amazon 76 Apple 77 and Google 78 79 Section 19a cases may involve coordination among the German Federal Cartel Office and the European Commission and other national competition authorities Legally it has been proposed by the Federal Cartel Office that Section 19a must be seen as an expansion of competition law meaning that it could be applied parallel to the Digital Markets Act The trilogue negotiations on the Digital Markets Act have not yielded a common position on the matter 80 Identified gatekeepers editAs of September 2023 the list of gatekeepers was revealed to be Alphabet Amazon Apple ByteDance Meta and Microsoft 81 82 The twenty two core products listed as gatekeeping products were Alphabet Google Search Google Maps Google Play Google Shopping Google Ads Chrome Android YouTube Amazon Amazon Marketplace Amazon Product Advertising Apple App Store Safari iOS Bytedance TikTok Meta Facebook Instagram Facebook Marketplace WhatsApp Messenger Microsoft LinkedIn Microsoft Windows Alphabet edit Alphabet Inc is the parent company of Google The tensions between Alphabet Google and the European Union have been generated by sanctions applied to unfair practices related to advertising mobile operating system or shopping strategies Several fines were imposed by the European Commission to Google because of breaches of competition law but taking into account that despite the CJEU s rulings inefficient market outcomes in terms of higher prices lower quality less choice and innovation still emerged the DMA aims to better regulate this area As the main focus of the Digital Markets Act is represented by operators that provide search engines social networks cloud computing services and operating systems Google was one of the companies that officially presented its position 83 In an interview Google s President of Business and Operations for the EMEA region Matt Brittin stated that It s so important to get the rules right for European consumers to have more choice to support the kind of jobs we ll need in the future and to support European businesses 83 Even though not specifically named Google is one of the companies that will be affected by the stringent rules because the legislation will be applied to firms with European revenues of at least 6 5 bn or at least 45 million users across Europe Nevertheless as subject to potential fines of up to 10 of its global revenue for breaking the rules 84 Google is highly incentivized to continue influencing the legislators and lobbying in Brussels for obtaining better conditions under the Digital Market Act The rhetoric of Google and its attempts to contour an official position relied mainly on the risks that might emerge from the legislative act namely barriers as Europeans will only have access to less choice and to more costly alternatives 84 Nevertheless the big tech has also tried to highlight the weaknesses of the Digital Market Act and they labelled it a blacklist whose implications in terms of interoperability might not generate innovation in the future but incentives for lowest common denominator 85 In November 2020 the French news magazine Le Point published Google s leaked lobby strategy on the Digital Market Act thus several practices and intentions have been uncovered 83 For example there were made references to Lobby at Parliament Commission and member state level Re frame the political narrative around costs to the economy and consumers Mobilise third parties such as think tanks and academics to echo Google s message Mobilise the US Government Create pushback against Commissioner Breton who was seen as supporting potential break ups Create conflict between Commission departments 86 verification needed As far as the cost of these lobbying practices is concerned according to the Transparency Register Google spent more than 19 million euros on lobbying in the first half of 2020 86 Even though the sum of money allocated by Google has already reached significant levels the numbers presented above do not comprise all the transactions related to academic partnerships law firms or activities conducted in individual Member States Corporate Europe Observatory investigated the fight of EU tech regulation and according to its findings 158 meetings were registered since the Von der Leyen Commission took office meetings that involved 103 organisations mostly companies and lobby groups Only 13 actors had at least 3 or more meetings logged on these issues Google stands out with the most meetings with Microsoft and Facebook trailing close behind Apple and Amazon have also lobbied on the DMA and or DSA although they rank lower overall with two and one meeting respectively 86 However one of the limitations faced is represented by the fact that the endeavours with the officials responsible for drafting the legislation are not mentioned as only the official meetings with high representatives are declared or announced 86 Despite the fact that the proposal has been published on 15 December 2020 the lobbying practices still represent an ongoing process because they have been transferred from the commission to the European Parliament and Council However comparing the data obtained on the meetings of the European Commission with the information made available by the other institutions it can be observed that transparency is even less stringent In October 2023 the German cartel office said Alphabet unit Google had agreed to change its user data practices to end a German antitrust investigation aimed at curbing its data driven market power 87 Alphabet responded by 88 Creating the Data Portability API an API that allows to transfer content of Chrome browser Google Maps Play Store Google Search Google Shopping and YouTube to another service but is only available in all EEA countries only and the United Kingdom Added additional data for EEA advertisers Launching a program to have external payment in Google Play Store Android 14 supports seamless updating on third party app stores worldwide Added a settings panel to unlink data between most Google services Added EU choice screens to Android which are randomly ordered Added dedicated chips to link to external services for flights and other stuff Amazon edit Amazon welcomed the DMA and according to its position citation needed the company has not been as concerned about it as the other GAFAM members citation needed This can be explained by the fact that compared to Google s and Apple s case the Digital Markets Act could affect Amazon only in three aspects original research Amazon might be obliged to allow business users to offer the same products or services to end users at prices or conditions that are different from those offered by Amazon DMA Article 5b Amazon might be obliged not to use data from competitors that is not public DMA Article 6a Amazon might be obliged not to treat the services and the products it offers more favourably DMA Article 6d The prohibition on using non public data from competitors it hosts on its platform and the prohibition on ranking its product before the ones offered by competitors may impact Amazon if the proposal for the DMA is adopted under its current form Moreover these aspects caused Amazon to negotiate the final version of the regulation taking into account that it spent 1 75 million on lobbying practices and that it became a member of several think tanks 89 Apple edit The new European draft legislation has also targeted Apple s App Store with regard to its practices and preinstalled applications One of the main changes that will be brought to their current business model is represented by the removal of the self preferencing strategy 90 As a result of the proposal on the Digital Markets Act Apple would be forced to change the manner in which its apps are displayed in the App Store searches so as to give the chance to smaller developers to have their software downloaded by consumers Moreover Apple will have to allow its customers to uninstall preloaded first party apps from the devices procured Thus both Google and Apple will be constrained and their practices more regulated According to the DMA final proposal these big tech companies will be compelled to share performance metrics for free with advertisers and publishers 90 Before the official release of the DMA proposal some companies including Apple tried to change their behaviour taking into account the reactions generated by the commission s intent to regulate the digital market As far as Apple is concerned in October a group of French publishers led by italicno APIG highlighted its concern with regard to the App Store s terms of service For example one of their requirements was related to the economic dependence on Apple Content publishers are in a situation of absolute economic dependence on Apple for the distribution of their content on the iPhone since the only store available on this device is the AppStore In addition Apple was criticised for the 30 commission on sales that it makes through apps on the platform thus the APIG showed its concern vis a vis the further concentration on the market 91 The reaction of Apple to these allegations was focused especially on a reduction of its commission rate to 15 for app developers with less than 1 million in annual net sales but this did not impede the European Commission to continue advocating for the Digital Markets Act 92 Similar to Google s case Apple also seeks to limit the influence of the commission and to escape the definition of gatekeeper so as not to become subject to further obligations However as Brussels still wants to outlaw gatekeepers ability to ban others from accessing their marketplaces firms like Spotify and Facebook that believe Apple has set unfair conditions on those companies apps within App Store seem to support the commission s proposal 93 The strategy of Apple to limit the influence of the DMA is not as clear or well structured as in Google s case However there can be observed some practices engaged in by the company to ensure that its objectives are taken into account by the European officials According to a research conducted by the Corporate Europe Observatory 94 it seems that Apple Google and Facebook used to work with several associations that declared themselves independent without disclosing their linkages For example the Center for European Reform has featured on its website a list of its corporate donors one of them being Apple but Apple does not specify this information on the Transparency Register entry 94 Under these circumstances it can be observed the network created around interests groups companies NGOs and think tanks as all of them seek to shape the legislative process in Brussels in their favour When it comes to lobby spending despite the limited and incomplete information it can be observed that Apple is in the top 30 individual corporate lobby spenders in Brussels at numbers 16 with over 2 million In comparison with Google that has allocated a budget of 8 million Apple still invests a considerable sum of money on access to European officials so as to present its demands 94 ByteDance edit ByteDance is the one non American company on the list of Gatekeepers Its major service offering is the video hosting social network TikTok ByteDance responded by launching a Data Portability API for EEA users later to provide increased access to the API improving the Download Your Data tool s speed and adding the ability to partially export TikTok data by allowing selections of categories to export A webform for future DMA compliance was created 95 Meta edit Considering that the Digital Markets Act aims to limit the influence of large companies by allowing alternative players to emerge Meta has also been targeted by the legislative proposal As in the other companies cases once the DMA is adopted unfair practices will be highly discouraged and even prohibited so as to stop the harm they bring to competition However apart from Google Apple and Amazon Meta seems to support the EU rules that have been published last year timeframe In its official declarations Meta claimed that it hopes that the European Union will set boundaries for Apple Nevertheless in this context there were not observed solely tensions between the Commission and the Big Tech companies but even between GAFAM taking into account their statements and the objectives they advocate for The controversies between Meta and Apple started with the privacy feature used by Apple that allows consumers to block advertisers from tracking them across different applications Thus Meta a company that earns revenue from advertising began to retaliate and showed its discontent It has also added that Apple controls an entire ecosystem from device to app store and apps and uses this power to harm developers and consumers as well as large platforms like Facebook 96 The reaction of Apple was quite harsh and accused Meta of invasive tracking 96 Therefore the discussions around the Digital Markets Act started to create more tensions between Big Tech firms and to deviate from the scope of the proposal as the companies focused on criticising their competitors of illegal practices 97 Microsoft edit Microsoft was identified as gatekeeper The consultant Cristina Caffarra and professor Fiona Scott Morton presented the view that the only obligation that might affect Microsoft under the DMA was to enable end users to delete any software applications pre installed 5 It is unclear whether Scott Morton was consulting already for Microsoft at the time of making such statements her consulting work for Microsoft became known during the Fiona Scott Morton affair 98 Microsoft complied by allowing worldwide users to uninstall Camera Photos and Cortana and EEA users to uninstall Bing Web Search and Microsoft Edge APIs for custom search engines and widget feeds were created for EEA exclusive users EEA users will also be prompted about syncing a PC s data to Microsoft 99 A registry hack was shortly created to get these changes without living in an EEA country or having to move to an EEA country 100 EEA users are no longer advertised about Microsoft Edge Non Gatekeeper firms editAirbnb and Booking com edit Due to their important positions on the short term accommodation market Airbnb and Booking com became potential targets for the legislation Indeed above 50 of the homes designated for short terms stay are listed on AirBnB and approximatively 1 3 on Booking com 101 Therefore their possible labelling as gatekeepers has been long debated leading the companies to defend themselves and explain why they should not be considered included in this category 102 103 104 Moreover Booking com insisted on the fact that it is one of the only European companies that is a global success and that as they are not the most dominant actor in this sector they should not be disincentivized while competing with bigger companies 104 Spotify edit With approximately 1 3 of the market share in 2020 105 in the music subscription market Spotify is by far the dominant actor in this sector as Apple Music comes in second position with around 15 of market share 105 However Spotify does not seem to meet the criteria set by the European Commission according to the analysis of Vox EU 5 Dirk Auer an economist of the American think tank ICLE qualified this piece of legislation as a way to protect the European firms and that the criteria are on purpose excluding major European tech firms notably Spotify 106 Even if it is true that SAP would probably be the only European firm targeted by the legal act 5 there are also American big platforms like Twitter or Uber not targeted by the legislation despite their important market position 5 Samsung edit Although Samsung had appeared earlier on a list of possible gatekeepers 107 it was not on the final list Reaction within the European Union editFrance edit The French Government expressed its ambition for imposing stricter enforcement on competition rules so as to prevent giant tech firms favouring their own services ousting rivals or maintaining their dominant positions 108 109 Nevertheless France would like to rely on the possibility of adapting the rules through the Digital Markets Act in order to respond to the constant changes of the digital market 110 The French government is known to be publicly in favour of more regulation of the GAFAM 111 and unilaterally set up its GAFA tax fr in 2019 112 This tax was the source of tensions with the Trump administration 113 Germany edit The German federal government welcomed the proposal on the Digital Markets Act They consider that the current European legal framework is not sufficiently strong and that the enforcement measures must also be strengthened with respect to digital platforms 114 110 However the main concern of Germany still remains the preservation of small and medium sized companies as it intends to keep them out of the scope of the new rules 114 The head of the German Federal Cartel Office Andreas Mundt has on several occasions criticised the European Commission s centralised approach to regulating gatekeepers 115 He has called the European Commission s veto right over national competition authorities powers to impose decisions against Big Tech unacceptable and has asked for more powers to be given to national competition authorities 116 This position was echoed by other Member States 117 118 Netherlands edit In October 2020 the Dutch Government jointly with France and Belgium expressed their willingness for a stricter enforcement of the competition rules in order to avoid abuse of dominance and anti competitive practices 109 On 17 February 2021 the Dutch Government published its official position on the Digital Markets Act 119 and welcomed the initiative taking into account that the objectives it comprises are aligned with their national position Ireland edit The Irish government published its position on 8 September 2020 during the public consultations held for the Digital Services Act Package 120 According to their statements Irish authorities are not willing to assess the definition of gatekeepers as they explained that the occupation of a dominant position is not illegal Moreover they have also stressed that this particular aspect does not imply a diminution of consumer welfare and does not prevent innovation or new entrances in the digital market 120 Many of the companies that are likely to be targeted by the DMA have their headquarters in Ireland 121 122 The approach of the Irish Government towards Big Tech companies has often been the source of debates within the European Union 123 121 In 2016 the European Commission accused Ireland of granting Apple illegal tax benefits 124 The General Court ruled in favour of Apple but the Commission expressed its intention to appeal the ruling to the European Court of Justice 125 Rest of the world s position editAs with other pieces of complex legislation the Brussels effect other countries have taken steps to copy the DMA 126 Brazil edit Draft legislation has been launched to implement a regulatory framework inspired by the European Union s Digital Markets Act 127 126 India edit The Indian government is considering a DMA styled regulatory approach to apply to systemically important digital intermediaries However as of April 2024 no concrete proposals were done 126 Japan edit Japan is reworking its competition laws and regulations in order to more close resemble the regulatory structure of the European Union 128 South Korea edit The Promotion of Platform competition is modeled on the DMA 126 but is currently delayed United Kingdom edit The Digital Markets Competition and Consumers Bill is being debated and review by Parliament 1 United States edit The gatekeepers designated under the Digital Markets Act mostly include American Big Tech companies Google Amazon Facebook Apple Microsoft This legislation comes in a context where the EU and the US under the Biden administration want to rebuild better relations after the tensions that emerged during the Trump presidency 129 The European Commission has stressed the need for cooperation between the EU and the US in dealing with the dominant positions of online platforms and big tech which they consider harmful 4 In January 2021 the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen stated that the current president of the United States Joe Biden and the European Union share the same position regarding the regulation of tech companies 130 In a speech at the Munich Security Conference in February 2021 she invited the United States to join the European Union in its initiatives in order to create rules in the digital Economy that can be valid worldwide 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