The European Parliament and the Council are working with the European Commission to find a final compromise on the Digital Markets Act (DMA) that aims to ensure contestability, fairness, and a level playing field in the EU. While the political directions from the Parliament and the Council have been set, more work is needed to get to the final text and make the DMA work.

Clear and predictable rules are necessary to provide legal certainty for gatekeepers and users alike and for the DMA to be self-enforcing. In order to regulate dynamic digital markets effectively and proportionally, account should be taken of the nature of core platform services targeted by the DMA and the presence of different business models. It is deemed unwise for self-enforcement to be left entirely to the gatekeepers. Guidance will be needed to get to effective remedies and the Commission might need to play a stronger role in defining what concretely gatekeepers should and should not do.

Many industry stakeholders support the idea of some form of regulatory dialogue. Both gatekeepers and users would benefit and enforcement would be strengthened. Such a dialogue could contribute to ensure the DMA achieves its objectives and to create legal certainty by providing further specification to the obligations gatekeepers will have to comply with as well as to hold gatekeepers accountable. It could also help to better understand the effects that the DMA would have on the different platform services, on consumers and business users.

Listen to this EURACTIV Virtual Conference to find out how the regulatory dialogue could be designed and implemented to contribute to the effectiveness and durability of the DMA. How would the general obligations of the DMA apply across the diverse platform services covered? How can companies best assist the EU Commission in achieving the DMA policy objectives?