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[To Eurosmart members only]
DMA: European Parliament and Council found an agreement
Today [25 March], the European Parliament and the EU Member States found an agreement on the Digital Markets Act (DMA).
The objective of this legislation is to ensure fairness in online markets. The text bans gatekeepers from putting in place certain practices, for instance, favouring their own products in rankings. Notably, the DMA should also guarantee access to hardware and software features to third-party identification services.
In the agreed version, a platform qualifies as a gatekeeper if it has either an annual turnover of at least 7,5 billion euros within the EU (in the past three years) or a market valuation of at least 75 billion euros. The platform must also have at least 45 million monthly end-users and at least 10 000 business users established in the EU. In addition, the platform must also control one or more core platform services in at least three Member States.
Gatekeepers can be marketplaces, app stores, search engines, cloud services etc.
The DMA imposes new obligations on these gatekeepers. For the most important software (e.g. web browsers), they cannot require their software by default upon installation of the operating system. They must also allow app developers fair access to the supplementary functionalities of smartphones (e.g. NFC chip).
In case of violation of the DMA, gatekeepers must pay a fine of up to 10% of their total worldwide turnover. The fine can be up to 20% of its worldwide turnover for a repeat offence.
The European Commission is the sole enforcer of the DMA.
Next steps:
Technical details still need to be finalised. The European Parliament and the Council will shortly approve (vote) the agreement.
The regulation must be implemented six months after its entry into force.
An agreement on the Digital Services Act (DSA) is also expected shortly. The DSA targets misinformation and illegal content on large platforms.
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