The Digital Markets Act – new rules for providers of digital services
The Digital Markets Act (“DMA”) was published in the Official Journal of the European Union on 12 October 2022 and enters into force on 1 November 2022. The DMA starts to apply from 2 May 2023, at which point the European Commission will start designating undertakings as gatekeepers. Once an undertaking has been designated as a gatekeeper, it must comply with all obligations and restrictions set out in the DMA within 6 months from the date of the designation decision.
The DMA is an ex-ante regulation – aimed at tackling certain abusive practices by large undertakings before they occur, rather than using the existing competition law tools in article 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. Undertakings that have been designated as gatekeepers face fines of up to 10 percent, and up to 20 percent in case of repeat non-compliance, of their global annual revenue if they are found to breach the obligations and prohibitions of the DMA.
In the following, Felix Makarowski and Amanda Bos Ekman, provide an introduction into the DMA and its most important provisions.