The Digital Markets Act: ensuring fair and open digital markets
Some large online platforms act as "gatekeepers" in digital markets. The Digital Markets Act aims to ensure that these platforms behave in a fair way online. Together with the Digital Services Act, the Digital Markets Act is one of the centrepieces of the European digital strategy.
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.
The new rules will establish obligations for gatekeepers, “do’s” and “don’ts” they must comply with in their daily operations.
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:
The European Parliament and Member States will discuss the Commission’s proposal according the ordinary legislative procedure. Once adopted, the Act will be directly applicable across the EU.
