The Digital Markets Act (DMA), a historic European regulation aimed at ensuring greater competition on digital markets, comes fully into force.
From March 7, Apple, Alphabet, Meta, Amazon, Microsoft and ByteDance must comply with all obligations under the DMA.
The six companies were designated by the European Commission in September last year as gatekeepers, i.e. entities that act as an access point between business users and consumers and enjoy a position to potentially create distortions in the digital economy.
Gatekeepers, who have so far started testing measures to comply with European legislation, will have to demonstrate that they are actually compliant by describing the measures taken in compliance reports that will now be analyzed by the European executive.
Designated gatekeepers must also submit an independently verified description of all techniques used to profile consumers, along with a non-confidential version of the report.
The Commission will then have to assess whether the implemented measures are effective, also basing its analysis on stakeholder contributions, in the context of compliance workshops, where gatekeepers are invited to present their solutions.
The Commission will not hesitate to take formal enforcement actions, using all the tools at its disposal to fully apply the legislation on digital markets.
For the vice president of the European Commission, Margrethe Vestager, the legislation "will profoundly change the way online markets work and open up the digital market, to the benefit of all European operators and users".
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