Digital Markets Act – Joint position of European competition authorities

The heads of the national competition authorities of the European Union, organised within the European Competition Network (ECN), have agreed on a joint paper concerning the role of national competition authorities in enforcing the Digital Markets Act (DMA).

Andreas Mundt, President of the Bundeskartellamt: “We welcome the proposed Digital Markets Act as an instrument complementing established rules of competition law. We advocate an application of the Digital Markets Act by the Directorate-General for Competition at the European level, supplemented by possibilities for complementary enforcement by national competition authorities. The proposal is based in particular on the work and successful decision-making practice that both the Directorate-General for Competition and national competition authorities have carried out in the digital area over the past 20 years. The success of the Digital Markets Act will also depend on its effective enforcement. With the combination of their cross-sector expertise and experience with digital markets, the European competition authorities can make a decisive contribution to this.”

In their joint paper, the heads of national competition authorities advocate establishing a mechanism for close coordination and cooperation among these agencies in the context of the DMA, which could build on the ECN model that has been successfully established for more than 15 years.

The discussion concerns the proposal for a regulation on markets in the digital sector (“Digital Markets Act”, DMA) published by the European Commission on 15 December 2020. The proposal aims at contestable and fair markets in the digital sector and thus overlaps with competition law. The draft regulation addresses large online platforms, which are to be designated as “gatekeepers” under certain criteria. Particularly relevant “Core Platform Services” by such gatekeepers (for example online intermediation services, search engines, social networks, video-sharing platforms, certain communication services, operating systems, cloud computing services, or advertising services) are subsequently subjected to specific obligations. For example, the draft regulation stipulates that platforms classified as a “gatekeeper” must allow third-parties to cooperate with their services in certain situations, or that platforms may not prefer their own services in rankings.

The joint paper as well as the press release by the ECN are available here.