Digital Markets Act: rules for digital gatekeepers to ensure open markets start to apply
The EU Digital Markets Act (DMA) applies from today. The DMA aims to ensure contestable and fair markets in the digital sector. It defines gatekeepers as those large online platforms that provide an important gateway between business users and consumers, whose position can grant them the power to act as a private rule maker, and thus create a bottleneck in the digital economy. To address these issues, the DMA defines a series of specific obligations that gatekeepers will need to respect, including prohibiting them from engaging in certain behaviours in a list of do’s and don’ts. More information is available in the dedicated Q&A.
Now that the DMA applies, potential gatekeepers that meet the quantitative thresholds established have until 3 July to notify their core platform services to the Commission. The Commission will then have 45 working days (until 6 September 2023) to decide whether the company meets the thresholds and to designate gatekeepers. Following their designation, gatekeepers will have six months (i.e. until 6 March 2024) to comply with the requirements in the DMA.
The DMA was proposed by the Commission in December 2020 and agreed by the European Parliament and the Council in March 2022. It entered into force on 2 November 2022.
