Will EU’s DMA Tackle Anticompetitive Conduct in Big Tech?

The proposed EU competition rules will address practices like self-preferencing, anti-steering, data access, data portability, and interoperability among a few big tech companies, predominantly based in the US.

“For companies that play a role as gatekeepers, the Digital Markets Act (DMA) will (now) set the rules of the game,” the EU’s competition chief Margrethe Vestager told reporters hours after the law was approved. The law will be enforced in October.

This was “done a long time ago in sectors such as banking, telecoms, energy, transport” and at “long last, we establish the same reality here,” she added.

France’s representative to the EU Commission, Thierry Breton, said the law marked “a very important moment for Europe” in which public authorities have “reclaimed power”.

“Everyone is welcome, but we have rules and they have to be respected,” added Breton, who is Commissioner for industrial policy.

Praise and some criticism poured in after negotiators from the European Parliament and EU member states agreed late on the law that will curb the market dominance of tech giants such as Google, Facebook owner Meta, Amazon and Apple.

The European Consumer Organisation hailed a “big moment for consumers and businesses who have suffered from Big Tech’s harmful practices,” deputy head Ursula Pachl said.

The DMA will “put an end to many of the worst practices that Big Tech has engaged in over the years”.