The digital markets act
30 mayo, 2023
digital markets act
The Digital Markets Act is a groundbreaking law from the European Union that regulates the performance of large online platforms (designated as gatekeepers) in the digital economy to guarantee fair competition, which started applying on 2 May 2023.
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The purpose of this new regulation is that companies acting as gatekeepers in the online platform economy will stop committing unfair market practices.

The criteria stipulated to designate an online platform as a “gatekeeper” are the following:
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That the digital platform has a significant size that impacts the internal market.

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It controls an important gateway for business users toward final consumers.

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That the company has a well-established and long-lasting position.

Being designated as a gatekeeper under the Digital Markets Act will bring some consequences. There are certain things that gatekeepers will have to do and others they cannot do.

On one side, gatekeepers will have to:

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Allow final users to easily uninstall preinstalled apps or change default settings on operating systems or web browsers that redirect to products or services from the gatekeepers.
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Allow final users to install third-party apps that interact with the operating systems from the gatekeepers.
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Allow final users to unsubscribe from the platform services of the gatekeepers easily.
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Offer the possibility to the companies to include advertisements on their platform with access to the performance measuring tools of the gatekeeper.
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Allow business users to promote their offers.
On the other hand, gatekeepers cannot:
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Use the business user’s data when the gatekeepers compete with them in their own platform.

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Classify their own products or services in a more favorable manner compared to those of third parties.

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Require app developers to use gatekeeper’s services to appear in their app stores.

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Track final users outside of the gatekeeper’s platform service for the purpose of targeted advertising.

These are the next steps for the application of the Digital Markets Act:
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In a period of two months, the digital platforms will have to notify the European Commission and send all relevant information.

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After receiving the information, the Commission will have two additional months to decide whether those digital platforms will be designated as gatekeepers.
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If so, these gatekeepers will have a period of six months since the Commission decided to designate them as such to ensure compliance of the obligations included in the Digital Markets Act.
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Likewise, the Commission has the intention to organize several workshops with interested parties to know their opinions about the compliance of gatekeepers.
If a gatekeeper does not comply with this regulation, it will face sanctions by the European Commission, who is the sole enforcer of these provisions. These sanctions include the following:
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Fines of up to 10% of the company’s total annual worldwide turnover, or up to 20% in the case of repeated infringements.
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Penalty payments of up to 5% of the average daily turnover.
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Additional corrective measures if there is a systematic failure to comply with these obligations. must be proportionate to the misconduct committed and may be structural or behavioral measures, such as the transfer of parts of a company.

Our Expert

Santiago Lombana

Santiago Lombana

Antitrust and Consumer
Law Coordinator

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