Brussels, BELGIUM — Today the European Parliament adopted its negotiating position on the Digital Markets Act (DMA), largely adopting the amendments approved by the committee on Internal Market and Consumer Protection, which is leading in the proposal. With the Council of Ministers of the European Union having recently agreed on their ‘general approach’, this milestone leads the way for trilogue negotiations to begin in January 2022.
The Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA Europe) appreciates the significance and attention given by lawmakers to this legislation of great significance to the technology industry.
The DMA borrows remedies from ongoing competition enforcement cases but applies them inflexibly and on a one-size-fits-all basis to all platform services of companies designated as “gatekeepers”. Expert economists, including Oxera and the Berkeley Research Group Institute, warn that this approach is likely to have significant unintended consequences that could harm consumers and business users of platform services in Europe.
CCIA continues to support EU-wide harmonisation of rules regulating platform-to-business relations, but has previously identified these same concerns with the DMA’s provisions. CCIA will continue to work with legislators to help make a DMA that is workable and that will help make Europe fit for the digital age.
The following can be attributed to CCIA Competition Counsel, Kayvan Hazemi-Jebelli:
“As lawmakers iron out the technical details of these new rules, they will have to grapple with a number of difficult trade-offs that are easily overlooked in the noise of political rhetoric. Hopefully they will find a reasonable compromise that encourages further growth of the digital sector in Europe. Changes should be carefully assessed to avoid any unintentional harms to Europe’s digital economy.
“We hope the final EU negotiations will ensure that the DMA is workable for all, gives companies a fair chance to comply, and benefits Europe’s digitising economy for years to come.”
