The Digital Markets Act: ensuring fair and open digital markets

Who are the gatekeepers?

The Digital Markets Act (DMA) establishes a set of narrowly defined objective criteria for qualifying a large online platform as a so-called “gatekeeper”. This allows the DMA to remain well targeted to the problem that it aims to tackle as regards large, systemic online platforms.

These criteria will be met if a company:

• has a strong economic position, significant impact on the internal market and is active in multiple EU countries
• has a strong intermediation position, meaning that it links a large user base to a large number of businesses
• has (or is about to have) an entrenched and durable position in the market, meaning that it is stable over time if the company met the two criteria above in each of the last three financial years

What are the benefits of the Digital Markets Act?

Business users who depend on gatekeepers to offer their services in the single market will have a fairer business environment. Innovators and technology start-ups will have new opportunities to compete and innovate in the online platform environment without having to comply with unfair terms and conditions limiting their development. Consumers will have more and better services to choose from, more opportunities to switch their provider if they wish so, direct access to services, and fairer prices. Gatekeepers will keep all opportunities to innovate and offer new services. They will simply not be allowed to use unfair practices towards the business users and customers that depend on them to gain an undue advantage.

What does this mean for gatekeepers?

The new rules will establish obligations for gatekeepers, “do’s” and “don’ts” they must comply with in their daily operations.

Examples of the “do’s” - Gatekeeper platforms will have to:

	allow third parties to inter-operate with the gatekeeper’s own services in certain specific situations
	allow their business users to access the data that they generate in their use of the gatekeeper’s platform
	provide companies advertising on their platform with the tools and information necessary for advertisers and publishers to carry out their own independent verification of their advertisements hosted by the gatekeeper
	allow their business users to promote their offer and conclude contracts with their customers outside the gatekeeper’s platform

Example of the “don’ts” - Gatekeeper platforms may no longer:

	treat services and products offered by the gatekeeper itself more favourably in ranking than similar services or products offered by third parties on the gatekeeper's platform
	prevent consumers from linking up to businesses outside their platforms
	prevent users from un-installing any pre-installed software or app if they wish so
	track end users outside of the gatekeepers' core platform service for the purpose of targeted advertising, without effective consent having been granted

How will the Commission ensure that the tool keeps up with the fast evolving digital sector?

To ensure that the new gatekeeper rules keep up with the fast pace of digital markets, the Commission will carry out market investigations. These will allow the Commission to:

• qualify companies as gatekeepers
• update dynamically the obligations for gatekeepers when necessary
• design remedies to tackle systematic infringements of the Digital Markets Act rules

What will be the consequences of non-compliance?

New rules in a nutshell

What are the next steps?

Once it has been formally adopted, the Digital Market Act Regulation will be directly applicable across the EU and will apply six months after entry into force.