Mobile phone – Photo © aey – Fotolia
(BRUSSELS) – The EU institutions struck a major deal Thursday night to regulate Big Tech through the Digital Markets Act (DMA) aimed to the benefit of consumers by creating fairer and more competitive digital markets.
The Digital Markets Act (DMA) provisionally agreed by European Parliament and Council negotiators sets new EU rules to limit the market power of big online platforms.
The DMA defines clear rules for large online platforms, so that no large online platform that acts as a gatekeeper for a large number of users abuses its position to the detriment of companies wishing to access such users.
The DMA will blacklist certain practices used by large platforms acting as ‘gatekeepers’ and enable the Commission to carry out market investigations and sanction non-compliant behaviour.
The text provisionally agreed by Parliament and Council negotiators targets large companies providing so-called “core platform services” most prone to unfair business practices, such as social networks or search engines, with a market capitalisation of at least 75 billion euro or an annual turnover of 7.5 billion. To be designated as “gatekeepers”, these companies must also provide certain services such as browsers, messengers or social media, which have at least 45 million monthly end users in the EU.and 10,000 annual business users.
“The agreement ushers in a new era of tech regulation worldwide,” said Parliament rapporteur Andreas Schwab: “The Digital Markets Act puts an end to the ever-increasing dominance of Big Tech companies. From now on, they must show that they also allow for fair competition on the internet. The new rules will help enforce that basic principle. Europe is thus ensuring more competition, more innovation and more choice for users.”
EU lawmakers have agreed that the largest messaging services (such as Whatsapp, Facebook Messenger or iMessage) will have to open up and interoperate with smaller messaging platforms, if they so request. Users of small or big platforms would then be able to exchange messages, send files or make video calls across messaging apps, thus giving them more choice. As regards interoperability obligation for social networks, co-legislators agreed that such interoperability provisions will be assessed in the future.
MEPs also ensured that combining personal data for targeted advertising will only be allowed with explicit consent to the gatekeeper. They also managed to include a requirement to allow users to freely choose their browser, virtual assistants or search engines.
If a gatekeeper does not comply with the rules, the Commission can impose fines of up to 10% of its total worldwide turnover in the preceding financial year, and 20% in case of repeated infringements. In case of systematic infringements, the Commission may ban them from acquiring other companies for a certain time.
After the legal text is finalised at technical level and checked by lawyer-linguists, it will need to be approved by both Parliament and Council. Once this process is completed, it will come into force 20 days after its publication in the EU Official Journal and the rules will apply six months after.
